Phinma buys St. Jude Dasmariñas

The education arm of conglomerate Phinma Corp. will make its entry into the Cavite market after taking over St. Jude College (SJC) Dasmariñas for P432 million.

In a regulatory filing on Monday, Phinma said SJC Dasmariñas would add 3,000 students to the network of Phinma Education Holdings Inc., making it one of the largest private school networks in Southeast Asia.

Phinma Education bought 30,750 shares for P2,764.23 each, representing a 94.62-percent stake.

The company now has 10 schools in its Philippine network and 12 schools overall. Phinma Education also owns SJC Manila and SJC Quezon City.

“SJC Dasmariñas Cavite continues our thrust to make education as accessible as possible to underserved youth,” Happy Tan, Phinma Education country chief, said in a statement. “Our newest school expands Phinma Education’s presence in Southern Luzon and nearby regions.”

Among the programs offered in SJC Dasmariñas are nursing, psychology, hospitality management and computer science. It also offers master’s programs in nursing and hospital administration.

Phinma Education’s takeover of SJC Dasmariñas is its first since private equity firm KKR invested in the company.

In October, KKR completed an initial investment of P2.52 billion in Phinma Education to bankroll the latter’s improvement programs.

The initial remittance represented 70.22 percent of KKR’s P3.59-billion total investment to buy new shares in Phinma Education.

Parent firm Phinma also raised P1 billion from its stock rights offering last month to expand its hospitality, real estate, energy and construction businesses.

Phinma’s earnings in the first nine months of the year plunged by 84.5 percent to P122.73 million on lower selling prices and higher costs. Revenues inched up by 9.7 percent to P17 billion.

Phinma Education contributed P4.71 billion to the group’s revenues, up by 19 percent, as the number of enrollees increased by more than a tenth to 163,854 students.