Chennai-based education services provider, Everonn Education Limited, said untoward incidents had led to a dip in the revenue and business operations.
The company also reported exit of top people, including chairman, managing director, company secretary and chief financial officer. The company, which went through an ownership change and faced legal battle in 2011-12, said it had seen a “turbulent weather” in the last financial year.
“We need to admit that the untoward incidents have reflected on our numbers for the year that led to a dip in the revenue and business operations. This is just a passing phase and the company will soon resurface steadier and stronger,” the company said in its annual report.
Dubai-based Varkey Group’s Gems Education, which took over the management in August last year, stated that the year saw several changes in the organisation, including that in the boardroom but the fundamental vision, strength, and strategic goals remained undeterred.
The company reported a loss of Rs 16.50 crore in 2011-12, as compared with a profit of Rs 72.96 crore in 2010-11.
Everonn’s education solutions, advanced technology, global content, vast-spread network and others have showed a “remarkable resiliency in these adverse times,” said the new management.
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Boardroom change
In February, P Kishore resigned as managing director of Everonn Education after the $2.5-billion Varkey Group and its associate company, Gem Education, decided to acquire a majority stake in Everonn, with the help of Nikhil Gandhi, one of the stakeholders. The event happened August 2011, when Kishore was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in an alleged bribing case of an income tax official.
Gems Education acquired 12 per cent in Everonn through a preferential allotment for a consideration of Rs 138 crore. Later, it came out with an open offer in December 2011.
The group came as a strategic investor and acquired the management control. NRI entrepreneur Sunny Varkey is the founder and chairman of the group. Dino Varkey and Rakesh Sharma, senior executives from Gems Education, joined the Everonn board.
Following these developments, Jamshed J Irani, chairman, Kishore, founder and managing director, and R Sankaran, independent director of the company, resigned from the board. Company secretary S Vijayanand and chief financial officer R Kothandaraman also stepped down and were replaced with NP Mathi Lingan and Ramesh Chandra Gunit Reddy respectively.
Going forward
On the outlook, the company said its ICT division, where it provides computer education, computer literacy and computer-aided learning projects for government schools, yielded positive results during the year.
Revenues in this had increased substantially as compared with last year and this is further poised to grow significantly in the coming years as it foresees huge opportunity in the sector.
In the private sector, the company’s initiatives had generated many strategic engagements across the country in the K-12, training, certifications and test preparation, teachers' training and skill development segments during the year.
These projects are long-term in nature and are expected to bring in predictable and sustainable revenues over the medium-term.