Training giant NIIT Ltd’s reorganisation plan announced a year ago has taken concrete shape, with its Board approving a split of the company into two. The demerger of its corporate learning business was completed as of May 24, with the business transferred to NIIT Learning Systems. Henceforth, NIIT Limited will focus on the Skills & Careers business, while NLSL would operate the Corporate Learning Business.
Post the demerger, each shareholder of NIIT Limited would be allotted one share of NLSL for each share of NIIT Limited held by them on the Record Date, which has been fixed as June 8, 2023. Subsequently NLSL would also get listed on BSE/NSE post requisite regulatory approvals.
A year ago when the reorganisation plan was formulated, the group’s co-founder and chairman Rajendra Pawar had explained the rationale thus to businessline.
“We felt that there were two trajectories and two kinds of things going on with the brand NIIT. We felt the geographies of the two businesses – skills and careers and corporate learning business – were different, the business strategies different and the customer profiles different,” he had said.
Also read: NIIT: Stepping up on the learning curve
However, speaking to businessline exclusively post the Board meeting on Wednesday, Pawar said, an added impetus for the demerger now is the massive shakeups they foresee in the edtech sector, and the new opportunities it will bring.
“As you know, first there was the big boom of edtech, the hypothetical notions created by the pandemic, followed by massive corrections now. To add to it are the governance issues that some players are facing and the great disturbance in the market.”
Describing how in the past too when cataclysmic events like Y2k and the 2013 slowdown had happened, NIIT had seized the opportunity, Pawar said that currently too the three co-founders – he himself, Vijay Thadani, and P Rajendran – are rolling up their sleeves anticipating exciting action.
“As the dust settles, we have a chance to seize the opportunity. And as a pioneer and leader in the sector, we feel we have a duty to play,” he said.
Pawar now becomes the Executive Chairperson of NIIT (from a non-executive chairman role) and the other two founders too have taken up executive roles to steer the company during this phase of transformation.
Also read: Pay variance between temporary and permanent jobs reduces across sectors: report
Quizzed about likely new opportunities in skilling for NIIT Ltd, Pawar pointed to emerging areas like new manufacturing, supply chain, and design. He also pointed to an edtech growth summit and bootcamp the company had organised along with NIIT University that has thrown up exciting ideas.
NIIT Results are expected later this month.
NIIT’s Q3 revenues were ₹454.6 crore, up 18 per cent year on year and 16 per cent compared to previous quarter. It had reported revenues of ₹1,377.5 crore in FY22, a 44 per cent growth over FY21 and a PAT of ₹226.2 crore . The shares were trading at ₹387.90 on Thursday. According to industry estimates, the Indian edtech market is worth $340 billion.
The Board of NIIT Limited has been strengthened by the addition of Srikanth Velamakanni, Founder and CEO of Fractal AI, India’s first unicorn in AI. Other board appointments in recent past have been
Avani Davda, Founding CEO-Tata Starbucks, Strategic Advisor at Bain & Company and Ravindra Babu Garikipati, Ex-Chief Technology Officer at Flipkart
