The coaching centre operator’s losses widened sharply to Rs 2,443 crore in FY24 compared with Rs 104 crore the previous year, primarily driven by a surge in exceptional items, which climbed to Rs 2,720 crore from Rs 293 crore in FY23.
Excluding exceptional items and taxes, the company slipped into a loss of Rs 61 crore in FY24, compared to a profit of Rs 218 crore in the previous fiscal year.
The test prep firm saw its total expenses increase to Rs 2,532 crore from Rs 2,225 crore. The bulk of the expenditure was attributed to employee benefit expenses amounting to Rs 1,410 crore, followed by depreciation, depletion, and amortisation (Rs 259 crore), and other expenses (Rs 613 crore).
According to the company, it runs more than 415 centres and currently has over 400,000 students.
In the test prep segment, Aakash competes with the likes of Bodhi Tree-backed Allen Career Institute, Physicswallah, and Unacademy. The company is yet to file its financials for FY25.
On Monday, Aakash announced the appointment of Alka Garg as its new chief financial officer (CFO). Its former CFO, Vipan Joshi, resigned last October amid a wave of senior-level exits at the firm. Joshi’s move followed the exit of managing director and chief executive Deepak Mehrotra, who resigned last August after serving in the role for a little over a year.
Aakash operates as a subsidiary of Think & Learn, which is currently undergoing insolvency proceedings. Byju’s had acquired Aakash for $950 million in 2021, but a cash crunch following the post-Covid meltdown in its business forced the edtech firm to dilute its majority stake. In May 2023, Byju’s raised Rs 2,000 crore from US-based Davidson Kempner by issuing non-convertible debentures against the cash flows of Aakash.
In November that year, Pai invested Rs 1,400 crore in Aakash, purchasing all the non-convertible debentures held by Kempner. In January 2024, Manipal became the largest shareholder in Aakash Institute with a 40% stake after converting the debentures into equity.
Manipal has since increased its ownership in Aakash by purchasing shares from private equity investor Blackstone and the institute’s founder, JC Chaudhry, who had 11.12% stake after its 2021 acquisition by Byju’s.
In November last year, Aakash’s board of directors concluded a Rs 100-crore rights issue and approved the allotment of shares to the Manipal Group and Beeaar Investco, which invested Rs 58 crore and Rs 16 crore, respectively, in line with their shareholding of 58.8% and 16%. Beeaar Investco is owned by Byju Raveendran.
Recently, the Supreme Court of India refused to restrain Aakash from going ahead with its Rs 140 crore rights issue, which forms the second tranche of its proposed Rs 240 crore fundraise.
Think & Learn, parent of the troubled edtech Byju’s, which owns a minority stake in Aakash, had challenged the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s February 3 order allowing the firm to go ahead with the issue.