Australian (ASX) Stock Market Forum

IQE - Intueri Education Group

Fresh from striking a $212 million deal to buy the listed childcare company Affinity, Australian private equity firm Anchorage Capital Partners is believed to be circling another business in the sector ”” the troubled Intueri Education Group.

Anchorage is backed by former Macquarie boss Allan Moss and the bank’s former executive director Phil Cave and appears to be positioning itself to capitalise on the private education sector at a time it’s in deep trouble.

It was the buyout firm that purchased Dick Smith from Woolworths for $94m before floating the business for a value in excess of $500m.

The market value of Dick Smith has since fallen to about $85m.

According to sources, Anchorage has Intueri, which is one of the largest private vocational groups in New Zealand, in its sights.

New Zealand private equity outfit Arowana International, which spun out Intueri last year, is also said to be considering a re-*privatisation. It owns nearly a quarter of the company.

Others suggest Champ Private Equity could be running the ruler over the business.


But sources close to Intueri said the company had not engaged with Anchorage or any other private equity firm about a potential acquisition.

Intueri Education’s profile seems attractive to Anchorage, one of Australia’s most opportunistic deal-makers.

Its market value has fallen to $42.5m from the $236m it was worth around the time it was floated by Macquarie Capital and UBS last year.

Its share price collapse was largely brought on by a number of regulatory probes by New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Commission, but also by the troubles throughout the sector, with rival provider Vocation falling into administration in recent weeks.

An Intueri subsidiary is now under review by the TEC after a fatal accident involving a diver on one of its courses.

In Australia, Intueri operates its Online Courses Australia subsidiary, which accounted for 22 per cent of group revenues in the first half of the year.

That business is funded under the VET FEE-HELP loan scheme that has attracted widespread criticism following revelations that hundreds of millions of dollars were flowing to colleges with very poor student outcomes.

The federal government last month introduced laws aimed at stemming the flow of funds to colleges, with further clampdowns flagged.

Australian Careers Network is also under the spotlight after a subsidiary was deregistered by the Australian Skills Quality Authority over similar problems.
 
Looks like the end for IQE. Non-compliance in admissions and assessments (read: anyone gets in and everyone passes). Possible outcome is cancellation of registrations. There is still a written submission to be made, but it seems like it'll be all over by mid/late November.

Down 78%.
 
Looks like the end for IQE. Non-compliance in admissions and assessments (read: anyone gets in and everyone passes). Possible outcome is cancellation of registrations. There is still a written submission to be made, but it seems like it'll be all over by mid/late November.

Down 78%.

This one remains my biggest mistake. Ditched it when **** started hitting the fan (~75cps from memory), but an ~55% loss of capital is horrible.

I still think of it everytime I take a new position...


Surprised AWN hasn't been hit harder.
 
On January 17th, 2017, Intueri Education Group Limited (IQE) was removed from the ASX's official list pursuant to Listing Rule 17.2.
 
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