Education Stocks in India: “An Investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” This quote is over three centuries old but still holds true to this day. Education is one aspect that Indians have always been obsessed with. Although it is not the only metric for success it surely gives us the building blocks to achieve our goals!
Luckily this obsession also presents an opportunity in many forms in the Indian stock market. In this article, we take a look at the top education stocks in India. Keep Reading to find out!
Education Sector in India
Evidence of the obsession present in the country can also be seen in its education sector which is expected to touch US$ 180 billion in FY20. The fact that 27% of India’s population falls within the 0 to 14 years age group only adds to this growth. In addition to this, India’s higher education segment is expected to increase to US$ 225 billion by 2025.
Another aspect that has further boosted growth in the education sector is its increasing internet penetration. Now one can teach in any corner of the country. At the same time, it is also accessible to someone on the other end. This further aids in the delivery of education.
Top Education stocks in India
Let’s take a look at some major companies which are in the education & Edu-related industries and know more about their business.
1. Top Education stocks – NIIT
The company was set up in 1981. This was at a time when the IT industry was at its nascent stages. Despite having a great demand the country still had a great shortfall when it came to human resources. The company was set up with the aim to overcome its human resource challenges.
NIIT provides training & development solutions to Individuals, Corporates, and Institutions. Over the years the company has grown to have a presence in 30 countries. The company operates through two business verticals. The first being the Corporate Learning Group.
Here they provide Managed Training Services and Learning & Development transformation services to market-leading companies in North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. The next vertical is its Career business. Here the company delivers a diverse range of learning and talent development programs to individuals and corporate learners in established and growth areas.
The programs offered by NIIT range across various industries. These include Technology, Banking & Finance, Digital Marketing, Data Sciences & Analytics, Professional Life Skills, Business Process Excellence, and Multi-sectoral Vocational Skills.
They have a customer base of over 1.8 million users. Their customers also include Global companies, Indian Multinationals, Indian B2C learners, Universities both national and international. The company currently has an MCap of Rs. 4,631 crores.
2. Top Education stocks – Aptech Education
Established in 1986, Aptech Education runs a business of providing non-formal education & training in India. It also has a presence globally. The company offers training in retail & aviation, beauty, and wellness, media & entertainment. In addition to this, they have also It has expanded to IT training, banking & finance, and the preschool segment.
Aptech Education has 2 main branches for its revenue. The first being Individual training which forms part of its retail business. This branch caters to individuals through its network of branded franchise centers offering in-classroom training. The company has its learning centers in almost 40 countries across the globe. This branch contributes to around 57.07% of its total revenues.
Its other segment provides corporate training to corporate customers including Government departments, educational institutions, public & private sector companies. The revenue from this segment comes under the enterprise business/corporate. This segment contributes the remaining 42.93% of the revenue.
The Company operates through the franchise-based business model. Its asset-light nature, scalability, and replicability are the main factors behind Aptech choosing this model. The company has tie-ups with MAAC, Lakme Academy, Arena, and other branded training centers to provide non-formal training. The company currently has an MCap of Rs. 1038 crores
3. Top Education stocks – Zee Education
Founded in 2003, Zee Learn provides services through its brand Mount Litera Zee Schools. The school has its presence in over 110 cities through its 120 schools. Zee Learn also runs Asia’s No 1 chain of preschools. They have over 1900 preschools across 750 cities in India and its neighboring countries. They have provided preschool services to over 900,000 children.
The company derives its revenue from two main sources. The first being core education. This covers preschools to K-12 schools and higher education. Kidzee is the main brand under the preschool network which has over 2000 plus centers.
Its other source of revenue is through Supplementary Education. These range from The offerings under supplementary education range from vocational to test preparation to tutorials. The company has institutes catering to Media, creative art, and design art under its own brand Zee Institute. The brands of the companies include Kidzee, Mount Litera Zee School, Mount Litera School International, ZIMA, ZICA, MT Educare, and other institutes.
4. Top Education stocks – Linc Pens & Plastic
Headed by Mr. Deepak Jalan, Linc Pens is based out of Kolkata. The company is a manufacturer of stationery articles such as pens and pencils of all kinds, pencil leads, date, sealing or numbering stamps, hand-operated devices for printing or embossing labels, and hand printing.
Linc is a writing instrument player manufacturing pens and associated consumables domestically.
It derives 81% of its sales from the domestic market and the rest 19% of sales from exports. Unfortunately for Linc, with the increasing penetration of digitization, the core writing instrument market is not growing globally.
When it comes to the domestic markets the industry growth is limited to 10%, the size of which is pegged at 4,100 crores.
However, on the bright side, the number of retailers that the company works with has doubled in the past 1 year. The company aims to launch more products in the stationary and nonstationary categories. Further, it intends to increase its distribution coverage.
The market cap of the company stands at Rs.373 crores.
5. Top Education stocks – MPS
MPS is engaged in the Business of Content Solutions & Platform Solutions. It is also involved in eLearning Solutions, and Data processing hosting and Computer Programming, consultancy, and related activities.
The company has a three-way business model through which it gets its revenues
- Content Solutions
- Platform Solutions
- eLearning Solutions
Content Solution involves developing products for publishers including content authoring, development, production design, and digital enhancement. This model contributes to around 54% of the company’s total business.
Platform Solutions involves Custom Development, Testing, and Integration Services. This contributes to around 33% of the business revenues.
Elearning Solutions involves Custom Development, Web-Based Training, Online Education; Managed Learning Services, Simulations, Serious Games, MobileLearning, Micro-Learning, and AR/VR/Mixed Reality. This segment makes 13% of the revenue.
Conclusion
With 100% FDI allowance in the Education sector & China applying constraints on its educational companies recently. India is bound to become a hotbed for Edtech entrepreneurs and the next investment hotspot in this sector.
There have been 5 edutech companies that have turned unicorns in the last 3-4 years. The pace of digitizing education has picked up sharply due to the advent of covid,
The Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi approved the National Education Policy 2020, making way for large-scale, transformational reforms in both school and higher education sectors.
Finally, there is a bright future ahead for companies that are in the edutech space. That’s all for this article on Education stocks in India. Happy Investing!
