Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges Inc. is selling 12 Canadian schools to Eminata Group, a Canadian operator of vocational schools.
The schools, which are a part of the company’s Canadian subsidiary CDI College, are being sold for $7.4 million.
Corinthian plans to keep some Canadian schools, mostly in Ontario, the country’s largest province. It’ll have 20 Canadian campuses after the sale.
The company expects the sale to close by June.
The 12 schools generate about $35 million in revenue a year.
The sale is designed to help Corinthian focus on its remaining Canadian colleges in Ontario, according to Chief Executive Jack Massimino.
“The divestiture allows us to focus on our 17 Everest schools in the province of Ontario, where we have the No. 1 position in the career training market and excellent growth potential,” Massimino said. “Our goal was to find a strategic partner for these schools that could add incremental value and be a good home for CDI students and employees.”
Corinthian, which has a market value of about $1.4 billion, operates more than 100 schools nationwide and in Canada that offer degrees and certificates in healthcare, business, technology and other areas.
CDI College offers programs in healthcare, business and information technology.
The company is coming off of a two-year slump with falling enrollment, lower profits and setbacks in a program designed to get more students to its schools.
Since 2004, there have been lawsuits from students and shareholders, government probes in California and Florida and a stock option grant review.
Federal investigators raided a Florida campus in October, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and newspaper reports.
Officials from the federal Education Department and local agencies served warrants on Corinthian’s National School of Technology in Fort Lauderdale.
Analysts have said the company’s “countercyclical” nature could spur gains as the economy cools.
Historically, the biggest jumps in for-profit enrollment come amid economic slowdowns, analysts say. The biggest drops followed strong economic growth, as seen in the past few years.
