Monico Jacob, President of the STI Group, said STI Investments is in ongoing negotiations with target schools but clarified that a final deal is not guaranteed at this point.

“We have two acquisitions in the pipeline,” Jacob told reporters. He said potential buy-in deals would come on top of organic expansion plans of the ST chain, which aims to grow its student population by 50 percent to 100,000 students in two years.

STI owner Eusebio Tanco told reporters in December that the group is in talks to acquire one university with at least 8,000 students.

The group remains on the lookout to expand its education network after acquiring from the Benitez family last year a 40-percent stake in Philippine Women’s University (PWU) in Manila for P450 million.

The university, considered one of the oldest in the country, is set to undertake an expansion program that will boost its student population from 4,000 to 15,000 in five years.

“We are starting renovation of PWU this month,” Jacob said.

The STI group controls one of the Philippines’ largest chains of private schools, with 87 education facilities nationwide. It plans to open a new site in Novaliches this year and is preparing to begin work on four additional campuses in Cubao, Ortigas, Cebu and Caloocan.

STI was established in 1983, when it operated two sites focused on computer training. It now offers tertiary-level programs in IT, health-care, business and management, tourism, hospitality management, engineering, and arts and sciences.