The Edge Daily

Berjaya Corporation Bhd is venturing into the education sector in Vietnam via a proposed partnership with two individuals who are already running the business there.

In a statement yesterday, BCorp said its subsidiary Berjaya Group Capital (Cayman) Ltd had entered into a memorandum of agreement with Ha Kim Vong and Nguyen Thi Thu Huong to form a new joint venture (JV) company towards expanding the existing business and venture into new related activities.

The duo are owners of Khoi Viet Tourism and Language School (KVL) and Khoi Viet Overseas Study Consulting Co Ltd (KVOSC).

(From left) Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, BCorp executive director Freddie Pang and Ha Kim Vong

KVL provides professional training courses in business, tourism and hospitality and information technology, while KVOSC provides consultancy services for overseas study, organises tours for students and carries out student job placements.

KVL has a vocational school offering programmes to train skilled workers for the tourism and hospitality industry. It currently operates from a four-storey building in Ho Chi Minh City, with a student capacity of about 1,700 students. It now has about 1,200 students.

BCorp said BCayman would ultimately hold a 90% stake in the JV company. For a start, the parties would form the JV company with BCayman holding 60% interest, while Ha and Nguyen would collectively hold 40%.

It said its interest would be in the form of cash injection of about US$2 million (RM6.6 million), while the duo would subscribe to their portions via the injection of KVL’s assets and KVOSC valued at US$1.33 million into the JV company. Subsequently, BCayman proposed to acquire 30% of the JV company for about RM1 million cash from the duo.

“The proposal will allow the BCorp group to tap into the growing private education market in Vietnam particularly in skills training in the tourism and hospitality sector.

“In addition, there will be synergistic benefits to be derived from this proposal as the BCorp group is also involved in education (through Berjaya University College of Hospitality), tourism and hospitality business (hotels and resorts) activities,” the company said.

The proposal is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2008.