The Financial Services Institute of Australia (Finsia) will join Tribeca as part of a global education and publishing conglomerate in a $36 million deal if an offer from Washington Post subsidiary Kaplan is successful.
Finsia today announced the deal with Kaplan was subject to member approval by ballot and was expected be finalised in six to eight weeks.
Kaplan bought Tribeca for $55 million 12 months ago.
Under the agreement, New York-based Kaplan will acquire Finsia Education, the group’s education division, including its assets and facilities.
Finsia Education will become Kaplan’s provider of higher education in financial services to the Australian market, while Tribeca will comprise Kaplan’s vocational education and professional development business.
Both will be re-branded as Kaplan in due course.
There was a degree of overlap in the courses offered by both companies and there was a limit to the number they could provide, Kaplan Australia director and Tribeca boss Warren Jacobson said.
“A single organisation can now provide a comprehensive education pathway to the financial services market,” Jacobson said.
He said it was expected all staff would remain employed, but that needed to be agreed upon under the conditions of sale.
“All employees have their personal and professional aspirations . and suffice to say the intention of employees of the business is something both businesses need to agree to,” he said.
Finsia’s membership business will remain a separate company and will focus on professional development, course accreditation, policy research and advocacy.
Finsia said a sale would unlock capital and human resources presently allocated to Finsia’s education business to upgrade member services.
The large amount of capital and resources needed to maintain accreditation and develop and market new courses would be better applied to providing a wider range of services to its members, Finsia president Michael Shepherd said.
Jacobson said it was difficult to ascertain the performance of Finsia’s education business but Kaplan was it confident it would be profitable under the sale.
Students part way through Finsia diploma courses would be unaffected, Finsia said.
