DSK Legal Advises NSPIRA as Morgan Stanley PE, Banyan Tree invest $75mn in the education services provider

Nspira Management Services, an education services provider, has raised $75 million from Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia and Banyan Tree Growth Capital II. As part of the current transaction, a fund managed by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia has invested about $67 million of primary capital into the company for a minority stake.

"We will be deploying the funds to scale our business geographically, increase our client base, develop cutting edge education products, modernize our facilities and scale up our digital business," Nspira's Managing Director Puneet Kothapa said.

The company will also "opportunistically" look at inorganic opportunities synergistic with core business and diversifying offerings, he added.

"We believe private education in India is poised for a strong growth phase, driven by the large demand-supply gap for quality education as well as by increasing disposable incomes and urbanization," Morgan Stanley PE Asia's Managing Director in India, Nirav Mehta, said.

DSK Legal advised and assisted Nspira Management Services Private Limited (“Nspira”) and its majority shareholders, namely, Mr. Puneet Kothapa, Ms. P. Sharani and Ms. P. Sindhura in relation to the investment by NHPEA Minerva Holding BV, a fund managed by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia (“Morgan Stanley”) and certain individual investors. The team was led by Satish Kishanchandani, who is the Co-Founding Partner of the firm along with Partner Hemang Parekh, Principal Associate Anupam Shukla and Senior Associate Ishita Luthra. Their Counsel Abhishek Singh Baghel assisted the team on the CCI filings for the transaction.

Nspira is one of the largest management services provider in private education sector in India and provides an end-to-end spectrum of services to over 500 educational institutions including K-12 and professional colleges, with a student base of approximately 400,000 across 13 states in India. Nspira also offers coaching services in the medical and engineering competitive examinations space.

This is one of the largest deals in the education sector in India in recent times. This transaction also marks Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia’s first investment in education space in India.

Nishith Desai Associates acted as counsel to Morgan Stanley PE and the team was led by Leaders Karan Kalra, Pratibha Jain, Vivek Kathpalia and Aarushi Jain with Atikant Kaur Sahni playing a key role. Leader Simone Reis along with Vinay Shukla advised on the competition law aspects of the transaction. While Banyan Tree was advised by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas – Advocates & Solicitors, Mumbai, in the transaction.

Anand Rathi Financial Services Limited were the investment bankers for the said transaction.