The Navitas Limited (ASX: NVT) share price has fallen 0.5% in early trade despite announcing a new agreement with Queens College in New York.
What's the agreement?
The global education provider has signed an agreement with Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY) to support its internationalisation strategy which provides for Navitas to operate a Global Student Success Program for Queens College (QC-GSSP) on its Queens, New York, USA campus.
The QC-GSSP will support the transition of international students to a US university environment and prepare them for future academic success.
The agreement provides for an initial 5-year term with potential extensions of the program for an additional five years pending results and means Navitas now has 11 partners in North America.
What's the verdict on Navitas?
The share price has remained largely unchanged this morning despite the news, and this is in part due to the recent attention Navitas has received as a takeover target.
The company's share price surged nearly 22% to $5.30 per share on 10 October 2018 after announcing that it had received an unsolicited, preliminary, conditional and non-binding proposal led by a consortium led by private equity firm BGH Capital and AustralianSuper.
There was a similar theme on January 15 this year when the company received a revised indicative proposal from the BGH consortium for $5.825 per share, which saw the share price surge a further 12.9% to $5.53 per share.
Foolish takeaway
Despite offering a 70% franked 3% dividend yield and boasting a market cap of ~$2 billion, I wouldn't be jumping into Navitas while the takeover rumours are swirling as the company's share price will remain largely unchanged until further acquisition details are confirmed or procedures enacted.
The outlook for the Consumer Discretionary sector nor its competitors like G8 Education Ltd (ASX: GEM) isn't exactly looking rosy in the next 6-12 months and I'd be looking for more defensive allocations in the meantime.
Given I'm personally not in the business of punting on takeovers, I would instead be giving these top growth shares a thorough look to beef up a well-diversified portfolio in the short- to medium-term.
