Saturday, September 1, 2007

Equity fund buying into Masterskill

TheStar

PETALING JAYA: A consortium led by Crescent Point Group is selling part of its 95% stake in Masterskill (M) Sdn Bhd, which operates the Masterskill College of Nursing and Health, to another equity fund, sources said.

The participation of the new shareholder would help strengthen the company’s shareholding and “add more value” to it, a source told StarBiz.

It added that the next possible move for the company was an initial public offering.

Given the current acute shortage of professional nurses worldwide, the rapid growth achieved by the nursing college was attractive to the new shareholder, which was constantly exploring promising investments, the source noted.

The rapid growth achieved by the nursing college is attractive to the new shareholder.

Masterskill College, set up in 2000, is a leading private nursing college in the country with 8,000 students currently. Perak princess Raja Datuk Seri Azureen Sultan Azlan Shah was appointed its first president in March.

The company achieved an unaudited pre-tax profit of RM24mil on revenue of RM50mil for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2006. It posted a net profit of RM1mil on revenue of RM18mil in 2005.

Crescent Point formed a consortium to take over the nursing college in January. Masterskill is Crescent Point's second investment in Malaysia after AirAsia Bhd.

The investment house was the second largest shareholder before the low-cost carrier’s IPO in 2004.

Masterskill College’s core activities include training and producing qualified professional nurses and allied health graduates to serve at the local government hospitals and private medical centres.

Having Crescent Point as a shareholder would help broaden its horizon. Crescent Point partner and managing director Richard Scanlon was quoted as saying in January that there was a possibility of leveraging on Crescent Point’s strong ties in the Middle East to help Masterskill expand its business there.



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