The New Giants of Brazilian Higher Education

By Patrícia Gomes. It’s been a busy time for the education sector in the Brazilian stock market. In less than a week, two large groups of private universities have filed for initial public offerings, which together could raise as much as R$1.6 billion (US$730 million). But there’s more action than IPOs. This year, three mergers and acquisitions of major education companies also shook up the sector, which is making big bets on online distance learning.
The biggest of the two IPOs is led by Ser Educacional Group, which operates universities in 11 states in the north and northeastern part of the country and has over 100,000 students. The company set the price range at between R$19.50 and R$23.50 a share and aims to raise between R$600.2 million to R$976.5 million (US $275M to $447M). More...