An Apax Leaders center in District 5 of 'Shark' Thuy had to close - Photo: TRONG NHAN
On March 26, the police investigation agency initiated a case and prosecuted Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuy (also known as "Shark" Thuy). Before being arrested, how did "Shark" Thuy do business?
"Shark" Thuy - Originated from education
Mr. Thuy was born in 1982 in Hanoi. In 2008, he founded Egame, the predecessor of Egroup Corporation, and began developing products applying technology in education.
In 2009, Egroup launched the game Conquering the Universe , a game that combines answering questions about general knowledge and university entrance exams.
From 2014 to 2017, Conquering the Universe was organized by Egroup in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Training for students nationwide, but then had to stop due to mixed opinions.
In the period 2017 - 2020, Egroup accelerated its educational business products. The most prominent is the Apax Leaders English center chain.
During its "golden age", this model had more than 200 facilities nationwide. Some other English education models of Egroup that flourished during this time were Englishnow, eKidEnglish...
In 2018, Egroup continued to work with Korean partners to bring the Korean CMS Edu thinking capacity training model to Vietnam. In addition, Mr. Thuy also invested and developed the STEAMe GARTEN bilingual kindergarten and cooperated with Firbank Grammar School (Australia) to build an inter-level school model.
During this period, he was an investor participating in the reality TV show "Shark Tank" in 2 seasons 2018 and 2019.
The nickname "Shark" Thuy also started from there. However, his investment deals did not leave any success.
Tuition debt scandal
Entering the 2020s, 'Shark' Thuy began expanding her business model into real estate. Egroup calls this an investment model in "educational real estate" and considers it "a new direction but also an inevitable trend to ensure the sustainability of educational investment activities".
Egroup's Apax Holdings investment fund has begun to cooperate with real estate partners to "optimize and increase the asset value of educational real estate in projects".
At the 2022 annual general meeting of shareholders, Apax Holdings representatives affirmed their determination to ensure the sustainability of Apax Holdings by moving towards owning educational facilities after having built a relatively widespread system in many provinces and cities.
The slogan "McDonald's does not only sell hamburgers and 'Shark' Thuy does not only have educational products" was also widely communicated on Egroup's platforms during that period, comparing it to the real estate business model similar to McDonald's boss Ray Kroc in the 1950s.
In addition, according to Egroup, Apax Holdings has proactively acquired more than 7,000 square meters of land in Vinh Tuy ward, Hai Ba Trung district (Hanoi) to build Firbank Australia International School.
Apax Holdings also plans to invest in the Hong Quang Long Hai tourist area project (Ba Ria - Vung Tau) to pilot the implementation of high-quality educational experience services.
Parents come to demand tuition fees at Apax Leaders Binh Thanh campus (HCMC) at the end of 2023 - Photo: TRONG NHAN
The time after the COVID-19 pandemic was also the time when Apax Leaders began to face financial challenges of "shortage" of tuition revenue during the pandemic break, paying teachers' salaries, and maintaining a "huge" number of premises nationwide.
The fact that too many parents want to withdraw tuition fees paid many years in advance (usually 1-3 years), sometimes up to hundreds of millions of VND per student, because Apax cannot maintain its teaching commitment, also contributes to the financial imbalance of this company.
On March 12, in a document reporting to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee on the situation of Apax Leaders English centers in the area, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training said that according to Apax, the tuition fee that this unit must refund to parents still owes about 93.8 billion VND in Ho Chi Minh City.
Salary debt for teachers and staff until February 2023 is 11.5 billion VND, rent debt is 9 billion VND, social insurance debt is 31 billion VND for Vietnamese workers and 1.3 billion VND for foreigners.
Indicted
On March 26, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security announced that Nguyen Ngoc Thuy ("Shark" Thuy) had been prosecuted and temporarily detained for investigation on charges of fraud and appropriation of property. In addition to Mr. Thuy, the Ministry of Public Security's investigation agency also prosecuted Mr. Dang Van Hien, head of shareholder relations at Egame Investment and Distribution Joint Stock Company, for the same crime.
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