 "Byju’s’-owned test-prep subsidiary Aakash Educational Services Limited’s (AESL)")
Byju’s-owned test-prep subsidiary Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL)’s revenue grew 44.6 per cent to Rs 1,421 crore in FY22 from Rs 983 crore in FY21, according to regulatory documents sourced from business intelligence platform Tofler. The company's net profit increased 82.2 per cent year-on-year (Y-oY) to Rs 79.5 crore in FY22.
Aakash has been the best-performing acquisition of the edtech giant at a time when Byju’s has been facing a multitude of challenges, including massive losses, issues in securing fresh capital, delays in financial reporting, and legal disputes with lenders.
AESL is a leading test preparatory company and Byju’s had unveiled plans to take AESL public by the middle of this year. AESL specialises in providing preparation services for students preparing for medical (NEET) and engineering entrance examinations (JEE), school and board exams, and competitive exams such as NTSE and Olympiads.
The news of Aakash's financials come amid US-based asset manager BlackRock cutting the valuation of Byju’s to about $1 billion. This is 95 per cent lower than the Byju Raveendran-led firm's peak valuation of $22 billion in 2022.
Rising income
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Aakash reported a total income of Rs 1,464 crore in FY22, up 39.45 per cent, compared to Rs 1,050 crore in FY21. Fees received from students to provide coaching services increased 48.4 per cent to Rs 1,282 crore in FY22. This accounted for 87.8 per cent of the total income of the firm.
The rest of the income was generated from the franchisee model, which witnessed a 16.8 per cent increase to Rs 139 crore in FY22.
The overall expenditure was up by 34.5 per cent to Rs 1,332 crore in FY22 from Rs 990 crore in FY21.
The documents said that the company executed transaction documents with Think & Learn Private Limited (Byju’s) on April 3, 2021 to partner and collaborate to consolidate the two businesses. This will result in expansion of the business, achievement of economies of scale and efficiency, and the benefit of joint management of the company and Byju’s, according to the document. Pursuant to the transaction documents, the shareholders of the company were supposed to sell majority of their equity shares in various tranches respectively to Byju’s.
