BYJU’S Inches Closer To Resolving Aakash Dispute After Creditors’ Nod
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The creditors of Think & Learn, the parent company of troubled edtech giant BYJU’S, have approved a proposal to settle the long-running dispute over Aakash Educational Services’ shareholding.
“The committee of creditors of Think & Learn has approved the settlement,” the counsel for Think & Learn, Ichchha Kalash, told the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), according to an ET report.
“The settlement document has already been shared with Aakash and its majority shareholder Manipal Education and Medical Group,” Kalash said. “We are awaiting their final report on that.”
Kalash sought the next hearing on July 22, saying the parties were “at the last mile in that sense” and expected to conclude the settlement soon. The tribunal, however, deferred the matter to August 18.
The development comes days after it emerged that the company’s global Term Loan B (TLB) lenders are in advanced talks to acquire an approximately 30% stake in Aakash Educational Services at a valuation of about $2 Bn.
The lenders have proposed dropping all legal action against Byju Raveendran in exchange for Aakash’s stake under a broader settlement to resolve the prolonged dispute.
Earlier this week, a Bloomberg report stated that the Singapore High Court declined Raveendran’s plea to extend the stay on his six-month jail sentence for contempt, leaving the order in force if he returns to Singapore.
Raveendran was sentenced in May after the court found him in contempt for failing to comply with multiple orders to disclose his assets since April 2024. However the court later decided to temporarily stay the committal and surrender provisions of the contempt order.
Following this, BYJU’s clarified that the Singapore HC hearing only dealt with extending the stay on his six-month civil contempt sentence, while the main appeal remains pending before the Court of Appeal.
“Hence, this is not a new turn in the case. The stay was declined by the same court that made the underlying contempt finding, and that finding is precisely what is now being challenged before the Court of Appeal. The contempt order itself remains contested,” J. Michael McNutt, senior litigation advisor to Raveendran, said.
The settlement builds on negotiations that gathered pace earlier this month after both sides told the Bengaluru bench of the NCLT they were close to resolving the dispute.
The dispute began in 2023 when GLAS Trust, representing BYJU’S Term Loan B lenders, accused founder Raveendran of misappropriating funds while seeking to recover over $1 Bn loaned to the edtech startup in 2021. The legal battle has since spanned courts in India, the US and Singapore, with BYJU’S and Raveendran denying all allegations.
At the centre of the dispute is Aakash Educational Services, which BYJU’S acquired for about $1 Bn in 2021. Following a ₹500 Cr rights issue and debt-to-equity conversions, Think & Learn’s stake was diluted, making Manipal Education and Medical Group the majority shareholder.
The proposed settlement will determine how Aakash’s value is split among the lenders, Manipal and Raveendran-linked entities.
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