Combination Registration No. C-2026/02/1388, Manipal Health Systems Private Limited (‘MHSPL’) and Aakash Educational Services Limited (‘Aakash’)

Proposed Transaction

MHSPL and the other Manipal group acquirers are present in the education sector through UNext Learning Pvt. Ltd. and its affiliates MeriTrac Services and Jigsaw Academy. Aakash offers coaching for classes 1 to 8, preparation for scholarship and merit-based entrance tests including olympiads and national talent search examinations, coaching for classes 9 and 10, and science stream coaching for classes 11 and 12, under the ‘Aakash’ brand and through a single subsidiary, Aakash Edutech Private Limited.

Readers of last month’s edition will recall the CCI’s second gun-jumping penalty on the Manipal group, imposed for closing an acquisition of a further shareholding in Aakash without prior notification and approval. On June 3, 2026, the CCI approved a further increase, this time notified: a rights issue by Aakash to all existing and participating shareholders, pursuant to which the aggregate shareholding of the Manipal group acquirers in Aakash may cross 75%. The notice was filed on February 20, 2026, and took just over three months to clear, with three rounds of information requests by letters of March 6, March 27, and April 21, 2026, answered on March 16, April 6, and May 6, 2026, followed by voluntary submissions.

CCI Findings

Horizontal Overlaps: The parties argued that the acquirers’ offerings are not substitutable with Aakash’s test preparation and supplementary coaching. The CCI assessed the transaction on the broad market for the provision of non-formal education in India, where the increment was below 1% and the combined share fell in the [0-5]% band.