Anhanguera Buys Four Brazilian Colleges for 510.6 Million Reais

Anhanguera Educacional Participacoes SA (AEDU3), Brazil’s largest education company by market value, agreed to buy three rivals for 510.6 million reais ($294.6 million) as it taps into Brazil’s fast-growing education sector.

Anhanguera bought three companies that own four Brazilian colleges: Academia Paulista Anchieta Ltda., Uniao Pan-Americana de ensino S/C Ltda. and Uniao Bandeirante de Educacao Ltda., according to a regulatory filing.

Valinhos, Brazil-based Anhanguera has been growing through acquisitions as it rides a surge of Brazil’s middle class and near-full employment in Latin America’s biggest economy. At least 36 million people in the country of 190 million have risen from poverty since 2003, President Dilma Rousseff said on June 6. Brazil’s unemployment rate fell to 6 percent in July, its lowest level this year.

Anhanguera in April bought Guarulhos-based Faculdades Integradas Torricelli for 39 million reais after raising 844.1 million reais in a share sale in December.

Its shares have lost 38 percent so far this year to trade at 24.82 reais as of Sept. 16, underperforming the benchmark Bovespa index’s 17.5 percent drop in the same period.