Abril Educação is an educational publishing and technology company under Abril S.A., the media division of Grupo Abril, a major Latin American communications group founded in 1950.

In addition to Abril Educação, Abril S.A. is comprised of media companies Editora Abril, Mídia Digital, Elemidia, Alphabase and Casa Cor, as well as Printing and Logistics Distribution divisions. Abril Educação began operating independently from Abril S.A. in early 2010, following a corporate restructuring process. Abril also includes Fundação Victor Civita (Victor Civita Foundation), created in 1985 to improve basic education in Brazil. Abril publishes seven of Brazil’s ten most read magazines, including Veja, the largest weekly news magazine in the world outside the United States.

Abril Educação is a group in itself, with companies in Publishing (Ática and Scipione), Learning Systems (Anglo, SER, Maxi, pH and Geo), Schools and Preparatory Courses (Anglo, etb, pH, Sigma, Alfacon and Motivo),Language Schools (Ometz Group and Red Ballon), and Complementary Business (Escola Satélite, Edumobi, Curso Pré-Enem, ei você and O Líder em Mim).

Key Company Developments 2013

Financial

Despite Brazil’s unstable economy, with lower-than-expected GDP growth in 2013 and a 15.5% drop on the Brazilian stock exchange, Abril Educação registered a net growth of 1 billion BRL, up 17% from 883.5 million BRL in 2012. Adjusted EBITDA, calculated based on operating income including the amounts related to depreciation and amortization, grew by 23% to 311.9 million BRL.

Ática and Scipione led sales under the country’s National Textbook Program (PNLD), with a market share of 22% in 2013, and were second in the private retail market for textbooks and educational books.

Ownership, Mergers & Acquisition, Internal Organization

Abril Educação consolidated its position in the growing language school market by acquiring Grupo Ometz, a group of ESL schools, in April. In July, the company acquired Colégio Motivo in Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil. Three months later, it acquired Colégio Sigma in the northeastern city of Recife, expanding into two new school markets. In December, Abril Educação acquired a 22.7% interest in the capital of MStech, an education technology company.

Abril Educação increased the strength and reputation of its five Learning Systems (Anglo, pH, SER, GEO and Maxi), which are present in over 1,800 public and private schools and serve more than 550,000 students. The company claims a market share of 17.6%.

In 2014, Abril Educação plans to drive organic growth by synergizing its diverse businesses and eliminating redundancies.

International

Abril Educação is focused on the Brazilian market and it has little global interaction.

Digital

With an objective to strengthen its presence in education technology, Abril Educação acquired a 22.7% interest in MStech in December 2013. MStech has an excellent reputation and serves over 8 million students at nearly 10,000 public schools. Abril Educação plans to develop digital interfaces for its entire portfolio through the partnership, and to adopt adaptive learning solutions for individual student needs.

Abril Educação created Edumobi, the first Brazilian mobile teaching platform, in 2012. All of Edumobi’s courses are developed exclusively for mobile devices.

Abril acquired Xeriph, the largest Brazilian e-book aggregator in 2013. The group also owns IBA, an e-commerce that sells digital books and magazines.

Bestselling Authors & Titles

Abril Educação received total orders for 30.0 million books under the 2014 National Textbook Program (PNLD), including 12.4 million new purchases and 17.6 million replacement books from previous programs.

Private-sector sales increased 7% to 7.1 million books in 2013, while purchases in the public sector decreased from 52.9 million books in 2012 to 31.5 million in 2013.

Key Points for Analysis & Conclusions

Brazil, which is among the ten largest book markets in the world, hosts one of the most dynamically growing publishing markets worldwide, particularly in the educational field. Since the Federal government administers textbook sales to most Brazilian public schools, it is probably the most important player in the Brazilian book market. In 2012, the government was responsible for 26.4% of the publishers’ revenue. K-12 textbooks represent over 50% of publishers’ sales in Brazil.

Earlier Developments

In July 2011, Abril Educação went public on the BMF&BOVESPA, raising 371.1 million BRL.

The diversification of Abril Educação’s revenue base, with the incorporation of the Anglo companies (in 2010), and the pH and ETB Groups (in 2011), contributed to reduce the revenue seasonality of Publishing houses Ática and Scipione, whose results are concentrated in the first and fourth quarter due to the sale of textbooks to private and public schools, respectively.

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