Paramount up 3.70% on getting ministry, shareholders’ approval to sell education ops

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 30): Shares of Paramount Corp Bhd rose 3.70% this morning after it received the green light from shareholders, as well as the Ministry of Education, to divest its controlling stake of its K-12 education business for an indicative price of RM540.5 million.

At 11.30am, Paramount rose 5 sen to RM1.40, valuing it at RM849.36 million.

Paramount is selling majority stakes in Paramount Education Sdn Bhd (PESB), Paramount Education (Klang) Sdn Bhd (PEKSB) and Sri KDU Sdn Bhd (Sri KDU) to Prestigion Education Sdn Bhd (formerly known as Two Horses Capital Sdn Bhd). Paramount will retain an effective 20% stake in the pre-tertiary education business.

With the cash, the group plans to distribute RM177 million as a special dividend to shareholders, use RM150 million to acquire new land banks, RM133.65 million to pare borrowings, while RM57.85 million is earmarked for working capital and another RM22 million as estimated costs for the transaction.

On a proforma basis, the gain arising from the disposal is estimated at RM487.8 million, Paramount said.

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