Trematon Capital Shareholders Approve R172 Million Education Deal

A Generation Education campus. (Photograph: Supplied) Trematon Capital Investments shareholders have overwhelmingly approved the R172 million sale of Generation Education Group to an education investment fund managed by Old Mutual Alternative Investments (OMAI). The transaction, first announced in June, will see Trematon dispose of its approximately 87% interest in Generation Education, together with specified related interests and loan claims, to the Education Investment Impact Fund of South Africa (EduFund). A Wednesday special meeting saw 98.06% of votes cast in favour of the disposal, with 1.94% against. Shareholders representing 86.42% of eligible voting shares participated. The sale comes after Generation Education failed to meet Trematon’s early growth expectations. Generation Education, founded by Jevron Epstein in partnership with Trematon in 2016, operates six school campuses across the Western Cape and Gauteng. Although the school business still had growth potential, Trematon says, its board decided that realising that potential could take several years and retaining the investment indefinitely would not provide shareholders with a realistic route to unlocking its value. The company also argues that Generation Education represented a substantial portion of Trematon’s intrinsic net asset value that might not be adequately reflected in Trematon’s listed share price. Its education model combines Montessori-inspired teaching, Cambridge qualifications and alternative learning pathways with digital learning content and technology designed to support classroom and online education, it says. Generation Education has also developed technology aimed at extending its education model beyond its own campuses. Through GenEx, then its technology arm, the group developed learning management and student information systems designed to support digital learning, automate school administration and provide services to other education institutions, desktop research shows. Trematon’s financial disclosures show an independent valuation of Generation Education fell from R293 million in August 2024 to R273.5 million in February 2025, before declining to R200.7 million in August 2025. That represents a 26.6%, decline in six months, and a reduction of almost a third from the August 2024 valuation. The R172 million transaction price is also R19 million below the R191 million fair value reported for the discontinued operation as recorded in Trematon’s February 2026 interim results, although the figures are not directly comparable because the transaction includes specified shares and loan claims and is subject to contractual adjustments. Generation Education’s revenue declined from R209.1 million in the 2024 financial year, to R206.4 million in 2025, while operating profit fell from R30.8 million to R25.4 million. Trematon attributed the weaker performance partly to falling student enrolments, particularly in pre-primary education, as financially-constrained parents delayed formal schooling or considered alternative early childhood education options. It said student numbers had subsequently stabilised, with management anticipating modest growth during 2026. The company’s February 2026 interim results showed an improvement, with the discontinued operation recording a R3.06 million profit for the six months, compared with a R1.98 million loss in the corresponding period a year earlier. Trematon previously said the GenEx technology business had been approved to work with a major US online school on bespoke artificial intelligence and large language model applications. However, the June disposal announcement does not identify GenEx among the companies being sold. Trematon’s 2025 annual report recorded its effective interest in GenEx at 68.2% and notes that GenEx was unbundled from the school group in the 2024 financial year. It is now directly held by Trematon, although the extent to which its technology assets form part of the transaction is not est