Phinma offers to buy Laguna school for P313M

The Phinma business group seeks to scale up its education business with an offer to take over Laguna College of Business and Arts (LCBA) in Calamba for P313.2 million.

In a notice of tender offer to shareholders of LCBA, Phinma Education Holdings Inc. announced an offer to acquire at least 55 percent to as much as 100 percent of the 1.08 million common shares of LCBA at P290 each.

If successful in its tender offer, LCBA will be the sixth educational institution under Phinma Education’s growing network.

“It’s a school located in the heart of Laguna, which is a major student center and a growing and dynamic region,” Phinma Education president Chito Salazar said in a text message to the Inquirer.

LCBA has about 3,000 students.

The tender offer is set to start on May 19 and end on June 19 this year.

Phinma Education, a wholly owned subsidiary of diversified conglomerate Phinma Corp., seeks to provide accessible and quality education nationwide. Its portfolio includes Southwestern University, University of Pangasinan, University of Iloilo, Araullo University and Cagayan de Oro College.

In the nine months ending September 2016, Phinma Education posted an increase in system-wide enrollment to 54,704 students for the first semester of school year 2016-2017, up by 5 percent from the same period last year.

Revenue from Phinma Education increased by 18 percent to P1.5 billion during the nine-month period, inclusive of P466 million in revenue from Southwestern University, which was acquired in April 2015. Net income of the education group increased by 21 percent to P253.3 million for the nine-month period.