Elevate Campuses Limited expands through Rs 1,922 crore deals

Elevate Campuses Limited expanded through Rs 1,922.021 crore of disclosed 2025-26 transactions rather than campus growth alone. The five transactions included two student-housing business combinations, two hostel asset acquisitions and a Rs 1,092.495 crore common-control acquisition of a UAE platform that added the K12 Schools segment.

How did Elevate Campuses expand through Rs 1,922 crore deals?

Elevate Campuses disclosed five transactions with aggregate stated consideration of Rs 1,922.021 crore during the year ended March 31, 2026. The largest was the September 23, 2025 purchase of 100% of Elevate UAE Assetco Holdings Pte. Ltd. for USD 123 million, or Rs 1,092.495 crore. The other transactions covered Zolo's on-campus hostel business, Data Ram Sons Private Limited, Mavan Rachna Universities hostel assets and the SH-11 hostel block.

The aggregate is a sum of stated considerations, not one accounting category. Rs 559.810 crore related to the Zolo and Data Ram Sons business combinations, while Rs 269.716 crore related to Mavan Rachna and SH-11 asset acquisitions. The UAE purchase was accounted for under the pooling-of-interest method in Indian Accounting Standard 103, or Ind AS 103, because Elevate Campuses and seller Elevate Mena Master Holdings Pte. Ltd. were entities under common control.

What did the student-housing business purchases add?

Elevate Campuses acquired operating rights, customer relationships and facility-management rights through the Zolo and Data Ram Sons transactions. On April 1, 2025, subsidiary Elevate Hostel Management Services Private Limited acquired ZoloStays Property Solutions Private Limited's on-campus hostel and accommodation-management business for Rs 124.190 crore. The consideration included Rs 24.048 crore of contingent cash consideration and Rs 10.014 crore of optionally convertible debentures.

The Zolo acquisition resulted in Rs 45.881 crore of goodwill, as its Rs 124.190 crore consideration exceeded Rs 78.309 crore of net identifiable assets. The identifiable assets included customer contracts valued at Rs 42.080 crore, customer relationships valued at Rs 36.980 crore and property, plant and equipment of Rs 0.700 crore. Elevate Campuses also recognised a fair-value obligation relating to the seller's 10% fully diluted equity stake under put and call option arrangements.

Elevate Campuses acquired 100% of Data Ram Sons on December 17, 2025 for Rs 435.620 crore. Data Ram Sons provides student-accommodation services in Dehradun to students of the seller university. The transaction provided leasing rights and the right to provide hostel and ancillary services for 29 years and 11 months, with an option to renew for a similar term on mutually agreeable terms.

The Data Ram Sons goodwill calculation used net identifiable assets of Rs 427.595 crore, leaving goodwill of Rs 8.025 crore against the Rs 435.620 crore purchase consideration. The recorded asset set included investment properties of Rs 156.645 crore, land of Rs 156.051 crore, buildings of Rs 66.169 crore and an intangible right to provide facility-management services valued at Rs 187.314 crore. Elevate Campuses accounted for both the Zolo and Data Ram Sons transactions on a provisional basis under Ind AS 103.

Why were Mavan Rachna and SH-11 treated as asset acquisitions?

Elevate Campuses treated the Mavan Rachna Universities and SH-11 transactions as asset acquisitions because the acquired sets were not accounted for as businesses under Ind AS 103. For the Rs 103.520 crore Mavan Rachna transaction, management applied the optional concentration test and concluded that substantially all gross-asset fair value was concentrated in investment properties and related assets with similar risk characteristics.

The February 19, 2026 Mavan Rachna agreements gave Elevate Campuses 55-year leases over specified hostel land and buildings, allowing it to provide accommodation, facility management and ancillary services. The allocated assets comprised leasehold land of Rs 3.292 crore, buildings of Rs 63.984 crore and facility-management rights of Rs 36.244 crore. Independent external property valuers determined the material Level 3 fair values, a classification for valuations using significant inputs that are not directly observable.

The SH-11 acquisition used agreements dated March 23 and March 27, 2026 and carried consideration of Rs 166.196 crore, including Rs 2.363 crore of initial direct cost. The transaction transferred hostel-building ownership and leasehold land rights for 50 years. Elevate Campuses allocated Rs 1.400 crore to leasehold land and Rs 164.796 crore to a finance lease receivable, with no liabilities assumed.

How did the UAE transaction change Elevate Campuses' business mix?

Elevate Campuses' UAE transaction added the K12 Schools segment, which leases school properties, including land and buildings, to school operators. The September 2025 acquisition brought Elevate UAE and its direct and indirect subsidiaries into the group. The consideration equalled the net identifiable assets at the date common control was established, so the transaction had no reported impact on the restated consolidated financial statements.

K12 Schools recorded external revenue of Rs 166.814 crore in the year ended March 31, 2026, representing 29.3% of total revenue from operations of Rs 568.633 crore. Student Accommodation contributed the remaining Rs 401.819 crore. In the years ended March 31, 2025 and March 31, 2024, Elevate Campuses reported no K12 Schools revenue, and the 2024 disclosure identified a single reportable operating segment.

The K12 Schools segment reported a result of Rs 134.897 crore in 2026 after expenses of Rs 311.917 crore, including depreciation and amortisation of Rs 23.838 crore. Customer 1, a K12 Schools customer group, accounted for Rs 166.814 crore of revenue and was the only customer group disclosed as exceeding 10% of consolidated sales. The entire reported K12 revenue was therefore associated with that one disclosed customer group in 2026.

What changed in spending, assets and financing?

Elevate Campuses' capital expenditure, including advances, rose to Rs 3,038.837 crore in 2026 from Rs 6.322 crore in 2025. K12 Schools accounted for Rs 2,521.631 crore, or 83.0%, of 2026 capital expenditure, while Student Accommodation accounted for Rs 517.206 crore. This reported capital expenditure is separate from the Rs 1,922.021 crore aggregate transaction consideration.

Total assets increased to Rs 5,773.352 crore at March 31, 2026 from Rs 2,421.204 crore at March 31, 2025. Segment assets were Rs 5,561.819 crore in 2026, comprising Student Accommodation assets of Rs 3,067.861 crore and K12 Schools assets of Rs 5,124.722 crore before eliminations of Rs 2,630.764 crore. Consolidation eliminations remove intra-group balances from the consolidated total.

Debt, excluding accrued interest, rose to Rs 4,120.534 crore at March 31, 2026 from Rs 1,206.596 crore a year earlier. Equity was Rs 956.289 crore, producing a debt-equity ratio of 4.31 times compared with 1.72 times in 2025. Elevate Campuses states a policy of keeping debt-equity below 2.5 times and says its debt included Rs 1,050 crore of CDs issued to a shareholder group company that are to be converted into equity shares.

Conclusion

Elevate Campuses' 2025-26 expansion combined business combinations, asset purchases and a common-control UAE acquisition with total stated consideration of Rs 1,922.021 crore. The transactions expanded student-housing service and property rights while adding a K12 Schools segment that generated Rs 166.814 crore, or 29.3%, of 2026 revenue from operations.

The next disclosed developments include the Regional Director's April 27, 2026 approval of mergers involving Data Ram Sons and the board's May 20, 2026 intention to convert 52,50,000 CDs into 18,27,00,000 equity shares. Elevate Campuses also disclosed that additional school-asset acquisitions under September 24, 2025 share-purchase agreements remained subject to conditions precedent and completion requirements, with management expecting completion on or before June 30, 2026.