Aptech to acquire Maya Entertainment

MUMBAI, INDIA: IT training services provider Aptech Ltd said on Thursday it will acquire Maya Entertainment Ltd, which provides animation and multimedia education services, in a deal valued at 760 million rupees.

The cash-and-share deal will give Aptech, which provides animation and multimedia education under the ARENA brand, the Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) brand and about 70 centres, Aptech Managing Director Ninad Karpe said over the telephone.

"It is a very strong brand name in the animation education space," Karpe said. "We are already market leaders with ARENA and this will give us two strong brands."

Aptech will fund the acquisition through internal accruals and would retain the MAAC brand, said Karpe, who is also the company's chief executive officer. Aptech will invest to grow both the brands, he said but did not give any investment figures.

He said he was 'fairly gung ho' about the animation education industry, whose size has been pegged at $100 million in 2010 and is seen growing at a compounded annual rate of 27 per cent.

For the year-ended March 2009, MAAC had an income of 900 million rupees and operating profit of 130 million rupees. The growth for FY10 is likely to be 'flattish,' he added.

As part of the deal, Aptech would issue 2.25 million shares of 10 rupees face value each to some shareholders of Maya Entertainment, Aptech said in a statement to the BSE.

On Wednesday, Aptech reported a net profit of 36.1 million rupees on net sales of 231.9 million rupees for the quarter ended Dec. 31.