Edtech giant Byju’s Tuition Centre top executives have resigned as a part of this restructuring exercise. Asheesh Sharma, who was handling academics at Byju’s Tuition Centre, and Surendra Pandey, the regional director of the hybrid learning arm, resigned, said sources.
It comes at a time when the company has decided to lay off around 3,000-3,500 employees over the next few weeks as part of a restructuring exercise under the leadership of new India CEO Arjun Mohan. The layoffs will impact India-based employees of Think and Learn Pvt Ltd, the parent company which operates Byju’s, said sources.
“The layoffs will impact the employees of Byju’s, especially the sales team, both on-roll and contractual employees,” said a person familiar with the development.
Nearly 1,000 of the impacted employees were under a performance improvement plan, added the source.
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“We are in the final stages of a business restructuring exercise to simplify operating structures, reduce the cost base and better cash flow management. BYJU’S new India CEO, Arjun Mohan, will be completing this process in the next few weeks and will steer a revamped and sustainable operation ahead,” said Byju’s spokesperson.
The troubled edtech major is grappling with a severe cash crunch and has also given up office space, exploring a sale of subsidiaries and raising external funding, among other measures.
Recently, the edtech firm had put two of its assets Epic and Great Learning on the chopping block to generate about $750 million-$800 million, as the company looks to repay the $1.2 billion Term Loan B, reported businessline.
Earlier this month, the edtech firm had sent a proposal to its lenders to repay its entire $1.2 billion term loan B within the next six months, with an upfront payment of $300 million in the next three months.
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Byju’s took a $1.2-billion Term Loan B for a tenure of five years with a yield to maturity (YTM) of 6.78 per cent in November 2021. It had skipped its $40-million loan repayment on June 5 of this year and later sued its lenders, alleging predatory tactics.
In May, Byju’s signed a definitive agreement with Davidson Kempner to raise $250 million in structured instruments, linked with the future cash flows of Aakash Educational Services. However, less than half of the fund was released as some loan agreement covenants were not met.