The board and management council of Aakash along with Pai is likely to now steer the ship ahead for the business and appoint a new chief executive, people briefed on the plans said.
This is a significant departure from the earlier stand of the promoters being in talks with the company to come back at the helm of affairs to run daily operations. Pai has now emerged as the largest investor in the firm. The Chaudhrys still own around 11% in Aakash along with investment fund Blackstone having 7%. The remaining stake is held by Byju Raveendran and Think & Learn. This comes after months of negotiations between Byju’s parent firm and Aakash promoters.
“The legal battles of Byju’s aside, Aakash returning as CEO is highly unlikely. The current management and investors are heavily involved in running operations during key student enrolment season. The board will appoint a new chief executive though no one is finalised yet,” a person aware of the developments said. “Yes, there were extensive discussions for Aakash promoters to come back but those have fallen apart.”
The stock-swap with Byju’s parent Think & Learn hasn’t closed either as part of the $950-million acquisition announced in 2021. Pai-after cornering 40% stake by converting his debt in equity- has pumped in additional capital of around Rs 250 crore to run the operations, ET had reported last month saying he is seen as a key figure setting the strategic roadmap for the remaining crown jewel of the troubled edtech firm.
An email sent to Aakash did not elicit any response while Pai declined to comment on the matter.
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ET reported on February 25 saying a potential conflict arising out of a legal notice sent by Prosus to Pai over his conversion of stake is also not likely to flare up as increasingly stakeholders are seeing the Manipal group chairman as decision maker. All of Pai’s investments are in Aakash Institute, none in Think & Learn.Executive council
Pai is expected to join Aakash board once the investment proposal is cleared by the Competition Commission of India, sources added. For now, Byju Raveendran-founder of Think & Learn, Anup Kumar Agrawal (CBO) of Aakash along with CHRO Sachin Saxena are part of the executive council looking at daily operations of the coaching centre business. Ajay Goel-former CFO of Byju’s-was also part of the council but he left the firm in October.
Byju’s India CEO Arjun Mohan is also involved in operations of Aakash to an extent, people aware of the matter added. “The focus right now is to put the heads down and build the business. If this doesn’t remain, nothing else will matter. Significant amount of capital has been invested for it to grow now,” one of the people mentioned above said.
HC hearing
Meanwhile, the Karnataka High Court is slated to hear Byju’s plea against its investors on Thursday. On March 13, the high court had extended its interim stay on Byju’s plea challenging the validity of the extraordinary general meeting held on February 23 that sought to remove founder Raveendran as the chief executive officer. The interim stay order, which termed the decisions of the EGM as non-enforceable, was extended till March 28.
Byju’s moved court against investors Chan Zuckerberg Mauritius, General Atlantic, Prosus, Owl Ventures, Peak XV, Sands Capital, and T Rowe Price, who are the respondents in this case.