After Dominos Another Franchise Company Career Point Plans IPO.

The firm, which will be first in this space to hit the market, is looking at raising Rs 115 crore through the IPO.

Test preparation firm Career Point Infosystems Ltd is hitting the markets with a Rs 115-crore initial public offering (IPO). The firm has filed the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The IPO would be keenly watched as the firm would become one of the first companies in the segment to go for a listing.

The firm plans to use the funds for acquisitions, besides construction and development of an integrated campus facility in Kota. The funds will also be used for expansion of classroom infrastructure and office facility besides various strategic initiatives.

Centrum Capital and JM Financial Consultants have been appointed as the book-running lead managers to the issue.

Career Point is based out of Kota in Rajasthan, and provides coaching for entrance examinations for engineering institutions like Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and medical colleges. Its promoted by Pramod Maheshwari and has also recently forayed into education consultancy and management services, catering to K-12 and higher education segment.

For the six month period ending September 2009, Career Point had total income of Rs 34 crore and a net profit of Rs 10.3 crore.

Career Point raised Rs 50 crore from Franklin Templeton Private Equity Strategy in July 2009. This was followed by another round, where the firm raised Rs 10 crore from Infosys co-founder Nadathur S. Raghvan. It has also raised funding from Volrado Ventures in 2007.

Career Point had 24,000 enrollments last year and has a presence in 29 cities through a mix of company run as well as franchisee operations. Besides test preparation, Career Point has also entered into traditional education areas like Kindergarten to Grade-12 (K-12 School) and higher education (university).

Career Point has also tied up with Kota's Global Public School to provide Synchro-School Programme. This programme integrates studies for academic and competitive examinations, starting from Class VIII. Global Public is owned by Career Point through a trust.

The group also has a management school called ProSeed Business School, which offers courses like BBA (Bachelors in Business administration), MBA (Masters in Business administration), Hospitality and Hotel Management.

There have been several investments in the test preparation space including Matrix Partners India’s Rs 100-crore investment in FIITJEE Ltd, which also provides training for engineering entrance exams. Another was Milestone Religare's Rs 25-crore investment in IMS Learning Resources.

India's education sector has continued to attract investments this year as PE & VC players look for their share in a large non-cyclical opportunity. The private spending on education is increasing by 14% CAGR and is expected to reach $80 billion by 2012, says an IDFC-SSKI report.

Source:Madhav A Chanchani (VCCircle.com)