Aussies takeover education consultancy in India

Melbourne, Dec 22 (UNI) IBT Education Ltd, an Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listed company, has announced the takeover of the largest British education consultancy in India, Study Overseas Ltd (SOL) and its associate company Employment Overseas Ltd (EOL) for a combined consideration of 3.74 million pounds.

''We are extremely pleased to add SOL's extensive Indian market coverage to our strong student recruitment presence in China through EduGlobal China,'' Chief Executive Officer Rod Jones said in a statement to the ASX.

SOL is stated to be a provider of student recruitment services to UK educational institutions and has ten liasion offices in Delhi, Mumbai (two offices), Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam.

The acquisition of SOL will provide IBT with extensive representation in the significant overseas student markets of India and China and further expand IBT's global education services offering, the CEO added.

''SOL provides us with ten recruitment offices throughout India and we expect SOL to expand its network further into other major centres in the country in the future,'' he said.

IBT Education is viewing EOL (SOUK) as a vehicle to enter the British market especially London which is considered a major centre for overseas students looking to study in the UK. The latest acquisition would allow Australians to recruit British students looking to study in Australia.

This objective would be even more easier to achieve as SOL and EOL (SOUK) have recently diversified and added student recruitment services to Australian educational institutions.

The demand for Australian education from both Indian and British students, according to the IBT statement, has seen significant increases over the last few years.

As EOL (SOUK) also offers employment and immigration services, IBT Education would get significant competitive advantages as they can offer such services to both overseas students on completion of their courses.

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