Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges Inc. said Thursday it plans to sell its corporate training unit in Canada for about $16 million.
Halifax, Nova Scotia-based CrossOff Inc. said it plans to buy Corinthian’s CDI Education unit and combine it with its Polar Bear Corporate Education Solutions division.
Corinthian bought a 90% stake in Toronto-based CDI Education in late 2003 for about $32 million. The unit contributed about $32 million in revenue to Corinthian’s sales last year.
The sale is part of Corinthian’s bid to streamline its operations, said Chief Executive Jack Massimino.
“It will allow Corinthian to focus exclusively on its core diploma and degree-granting programs,” Massimino said.
Meanwhile, Corinthian said it has temporarily closed four schools in the Houston area ahead of Hurricane Rita’s arrival.
The schools were closed Wednesday and will remain shuttered through Sunday, said Anna Marie Dunlap, senior vice president in charge of investor relations for Corinthian Colleges.
The four schools, all of which are National Institute of Technology campuses, have 1,300 students enrolled and more than 200 employees.
“We have to see what happens with Hurricane Rita” as to whether the campuses may be forced to stay closed longer, Dunlap said.
In New Orleans, the company’s Bryman College campus was heavily damaged due to flooding on lower floors and an air conditioning cooling tower that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in late August.
More than 519 students and 70 employees were displaced because of Katrina. The company could lose roughly $6 million if the campus remained closed for a year, and the students can’t find openings at other of its campuses, Dunlap estimated.
“We’ve started to look at other real estate in other parts of the city and state,” she said.
