RELIANCE Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG) may pick up minority stake in FIITJEE, a New Delhi-based company that is in the business of running coaching classes right from high school to joint-entrance exam training for Indian Institute of Science.
“The group is looking at investing around Rs 140 crore, to pick up a minority stake,” said an official involved in the talks. An email sent to Reliance ADAG remained unanswered.
FIITJEE chief financial officer Rajesh Sharma was not too keen to discuss the details. However, he said, “We are looking for partners in our business. We will divest 10 per cent. We are interested not in the amount of money that the partners will bring in, but the quality of partners in terms of the value addition they could bring on board.”
According to him, several people had shown interest in their business. “We rejected some of them as they did not fit well within our plans,” he said.
Among the other investors who had shown interest to pick up a stake was Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP). An email to Vishal Gupta, vice president, and Rob Chandra, partner at BVP’s US office did not elicit any response.
“FIITJEE did not go ahead with their talks with Bessemer as they thought that R-ADAG is better name to be associated with,” added the official involved in the deal.
“We are continuously trying to expand our business and looking for partners. We did talk to Reliance ADAG,” added Sharma.
When asked about whether the talks are still on, he said, “I can’t comment on it.”
“There is huge demand for such quality tutorials in the country today. While there has been no official research done on the sector, industry estimates the market size to be around $400 million, which is expected to grow to $700 million,” said an industry official. “FIITJEE is one of the largest training institutes,” he said.