Tempest PE partners Investor Consortium, led by AEC, partners the management buyout of Sri Lanka Technological Campus

Colombo: A consortium of investors put together and managed by private equity firm Tempest PE Partners (a joint venture between Capital Alliance and Insite Holdings), and led by Associated Electricals Corporation Limited, has partnered a management buyout of SLT Campus (Pvt) Ltd which operates the Sri Lanka Technological Campus (“SLTC”), a leading education institute located in Padukka, from Sri Lanka Telecom PLC for Rs. 410 million. Tempest Two, which is the special purpose vehicle created to facilitate the acquisition, also injected Rs. 290 million in fresh equity into SLTC to support the growth plans of the Campus.

SLTC is one of Sri Lanka’s fastest growing universities, operating a 24×7, fully residential campus on a scenic 35-acre property in Padukka with modern buildings. The university offers twenty-five local undergraduate programs spread over schools of Engineering, Technology, IT, Business and Music. It has an academic faculty of over two hundred and the distinction of creating an environment that supports high quality research, including facilitating research collaborations with some of the highest ranked universities in the world. This has helped SLTC attract the best academic minds from diverse backgrounds to teach at the university.

Deshamanya Ajita De Zoysa, Chairman of Associated Electrical Corporation Limited, who are the lead investors in the consortium commented that: “the new investors are committed to supporting SLTC’s future growth potential and to achieving the university’s aim of becoming the premier research university in Sri Lanka. SLTC has developed a strong and progressive academic and management team. The investor consortium believes that through their collective experience and leadership across multiple industry sectors, they could add significant value to produce innovative, focused, and employable students who will contribute greatly to Sri Lanka. Collectively, all stakeholders believe that SLTC can become one of the leading engineering universities in the region, in addition to developing much needed competencies in fields related to applied sciences, ICT, technology and business”

Tempest PE Partners have been strong proponents of the need to expand private investment into Sri Lanka’s higher education space to bridge the capacity constraints faced by A/L students when applying for university entrance. Speaking on the transaction, Mr. Chehan Perera, Managing Director of Tempest PE Partners said that “we are truly honored to be able to support Ranjith and his team take SLTC to greater heights, not just within a Sri Lankan context but in the South Asian region. From our inception in 2018, a key area of focus for Tempest has been Education, and we could not have asked for a better maiden opportunity to participate in this burgeoning sector than through the unique and fast-growing institution that is SLTC. One of the main attractions of SLTC is the academic structure of the campus, which is overseen by an independent Academic Council, with strong academic teams in place across five disciplines. Working closely with the management, we will look to expand the reach of SLTC and leverage its strong academic infrastructure to set up a City Campus, where we can develop exciting foreign partnership programs, leveraging our relationships with leading education groups overseas.

We are extremely thankful for the unwavering support of Deshamanya Ajita De Zoysa and the Board of AEC who have come forward as the lead investor in this transaction. We are also thankful for the support given by the leading business personalities who form the rest of our consortium. All of them have a common goal of wanting to support the much-needed development of higher education in Sri Lanka. The consortium includes the Jetwing Group, Finco Holdings, Perera & Sons (P&S), ManSek Investments & Insite Holdings. Lastly, we appreciate the support given by the board of Sri Lanka Telecom (and its advisors NDB Investment Bank) to ensure that the transaction was structured and completed in a sustainable manner so that the development of the campus was not affected in any way”.

The management buyout was led by the Founder President/CEO of SLTC, Mr. Ranjith Rubasinghe and his senior management team to help fulfil their vision of launching SLTC into becoming the island’s premier engineering and technology university.

Commenting on the transaction, Mr. Rubasinghe said that: I am very happy as I believe this pivotal moment in the history of SLTC will mark the beginning of the transition of SLTC from a budding university to that of a fully-fledged, top-ranked, research-based university in the region. I have long believed the entire landscape of higher education in Sri Lanka needs a complete overhaul, including the programs, the curricula, the entire pedagogy, and especially the attitudes of all stakeholders. SLTC intends to be an exemplary leader in the higher education sector and will embrace and effect such change. This cannot be done without sufficient freedom for academic governance and management, and with this transaction, I believe we are witnessing a first of a kind in the nation, where SLTC will transform into an education institute that is run by its Academic Council.

I appreciate the enormous trust the investors have placed in the management team and Academic Council of SLTC to deliver the vision of providing a truly transformative higher education experience which will be rooted in developing graduates who have the higher order skills necessary to compete in a rapidly changing technological landscape. I also wish to convey my appreciation to Sri Lanka Telecom for providing the initial support for this project and for the trust placed in me in 2014 to set this mission in motion.”

NDB Investment Bank were the exclusive sell side financial advisors, who managed the entire transaction from generating investor interest, running a competitive two-phase M&A process and managing the due diligence process to negotiations and transaction closure” Leading law firms Nithya Partners and D. L & F De Saram acted as the legal advisors to the buyer and the seller respectively in the transaction.