With Byju’s mired in financial and legal troubles, its primary subsidiary, Aakash Educational Services, is trying to distance itself from its parent in its brand promotion and sales pitch.
Employees of Aakash are being asked to highlight its distinct brand identity. The company, in some recent social media posts, has also subtly reduced the emphasis on the ‘Aakash+ Byju’s’ brand.
A section of Aakash’s sales employees told FE that over the past couple of months, they have been asked by senior managers to distance themselves from the ‘Aakash+Byju’s’ brand identity and instead focus on the 30-year legacy of the test preparation institute.
“Over the past few months we have been receiving a lot of pushback from parents who talk about the negative perception around Byju’s in the media, including allegations of mis-selling products and loans, and corporate governance issues,” said one employee.
“When I approached my senior on how to tackle this, I was asked to focus on the 30-year legacy that Aakash has. I was told to emphasise on how Aakash’s management, coaching, and teaching are all different; we have nothing overlapping with Byju’s apart from being part of the same group,” they added.
On Aakash’s Instagram account, the ‘Aakash+Byju’s’ logo has been featured with less prominence in recent posts. For instance, a post on March 9, announcing Indian National Olympiad 2023-24 results, dropped the Byju’s logo altogether. Another post, on the JEE (Main) in February, features a large Aakash logo on top, and a much smaller Aakash+Byju’s logo at the bottom. This is different from the posts even as far as a year ago, where the ‘Aakash+Byju’s’ logo was placed more prominently.
Byju’s and Aakash declined to comment on the matter.
Aakash has in recent months seen Manipal group chairman Ranjan Pai become its largest shareholder. In November 2023, Pai bought out US private equity fund Davidson Kempner’s interest in Aakash, thereby emerging as a white knight for the firm. Pai bought Davidson’s debt instruments in a deal worth Rs 1,400 crore, thus releasing the 27% stake held by the fund as collateral. He is in talks to acquire stakes of Aakash’s minority shareholders such as its founders, the Chaudhry family, and US private equity fund Blackstone. This will increase his stake to around 39%. Pai will get two seats on the board, including the right to appoint its chairman.
Byju’s parent Think and Learn acquired Aakash for $950 million in 2021. This was the largest acquisition in this space.
Aakash reported a 40% jump in revenue to Rs 1,491 crore in FY22, alongwith a profit of around Rs 80 crore. Results for FY23 have not been declared. Meanwhile, Byju’s consolidated loss stood at Rs 8,245 crore on operating revenue of Rs 5,014 crore in FY22.