NEWS
Higher education
Laureate Education climbs 14% after offloading Australasian portfolio for $643m Laureate Education has sold its Australia and New Zealand portfolio to Strategic Education for $643 million, as the US-listed private university operator continues apace with its divestment strategy. The all-cash transaction, which has been approved by both companies’ boards but is subject to “potential adjustments”, will see US-based Strategic Education take control of Torrens University Australia, Think Education and Media Design School, which collectively cater to more than 19,000 students.
Following the transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, Strategic Education will serve nearly 110,000 students across more than 85 campuses in the US, Australia and New Zealand. After the deal was announced, Laureate climbed 14% while Strategic Education tumbled 17%. Strategic Education said that the transaction will diversify its offering outside of the US and “be immediately, and significantly, accretive” to earnings.
Actis-backed Honoris acquires Nigerian university Honoris United Universities, the pan-African higher education group backed by private equity firm Actis, has acquired Nile University Nigeria, expanding into West Africa. Established in 2009, Nile University of Nigeria is fully accredited and offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in arts and social scienes, engineering, law, management sciences, natural and applied sciences, and medical and health sciences. The acquisition by Honoris, which is three years old, brings its number of institutions to 11, whose 60 campuses
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are located in 10 countries spread across 32 cities and collectively educate 45,000 students. With the largest population and economy in Africa, Nigeria is poised to “lead a new generation of African leaders and professionals”, Honoris said in a statement. Nile University of Nigeria’s medical school will bolster Honoris’ medical simulation centre in Tunis, the firm said, which trains more than 3,500 students and upskills healthcare professionals. Honoris said that it offers more than 280 degrees.
Karl McDonnell, chief executive of Strategic Education, said: “By combining our expertise in digital education with Australia’s only investor-funded university, we will create a formidable growth platform that will enable us to pursue our mission of enabling economic mobility throughout the Oceania and Asian regions.” BofA Securities acted as financial advisor to Strategic Education and Hogan Lovells provided legal advice. The transaction represents the latest link in a chain of
divestments by Laureate, which has in recent years offloaded universities across Asia and elsewhere to clear from its balance sheet debt incurred by its former private equity owners. Earlier, it was reported that Laureate was considering selling its assets in Brazil. In March, the company sold its Malaysian portfolio to Hong Kong-based HOPE Education for $140 million. In 2015, Laureate’s debt-toequity ratio stood at 13. Now, this figure stands at 0.83.
Skema creates joint school in China
Skema Business School has signed two new strategic agreements with two Chinese academic institutions: Nanjing Audit University and Xian’ Jiaotong University, a member of the Chinese Ivy League, the nine largest universities in the country. With Nanjing, Skema has created a joint school and with Xian’ Jiaotong, a master’s degree in entrepreneurship and innovation focused on data management and artificial intelligence. The NAU-SKEMA Institute will start recruiting its first cohort of around 300 students in China in September through the Gaokao. They will follow a four-year fulltime undergraduate course, which includes four hybrid courses of
study that offer students a variety of possible career paths: financial engineering, audit, information management and information systems management, and engineering management. Alice Guilhon, Skema’s managing director, said: “These joint cooperation projects contribute to deepening educational exchanges between France and China and I am happy that Skema finds its place in them. They are also a strong link in the school’s SKY25 strategic plan to pursue its international development, which is based, in parallel with the opening of international hubs, on agreements with the best institutions in the world.”
EducationInvestor Global • July/August 2020
