Leeds Equity Partners has signed an agreement to sell Nobel Learning Communities for $405 million plus assumption of certain indebtedness to Investcorp. The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2015.
Nobel Learning Communities is a provider of preschool through grade 12 private education. The company serves over 25,000 students through 176 schools in 18 states and the District of Columbia as well as globally via Laurel Springs, its online college preparatory K-12 private school. The company is headquartered in West Chester, PA (www.nobellearning.com).
Leeds Equity and the Partners Group acquired Nobel Learning in a public-to-private transaction in August 2011. “We are proud to have partnered with George Bernstein, Nobel Learning President and CEO, and his team and look forward to watching them continue to drive exceptional performance and growth,” said Carter Harned, a Managing Director at Leeds Equity. “George and his team have worked tirelessly on behalf of their students and parents, principals and teachers, and shareholders for well over a decade and have forged Nobel Learning into a highly successful and top-performing national provider of preschool through grade 12 private education.”
Leeds Equity Partners invests exclusively in the application software, education, information services, tech-enabled business services, and training industries. The firm was founded by Jeffrey Leeds and Robert Bernstein in 1993 and has raised and managed more than $1.1 billion of capital across five funds. The firm is headquartered in New York (www.leedsequity.com).
Partners Group is a global private markets investment management firm with over $40 billion of assets under management in private equity, private real estate, private infrastructure and private debt. The firm is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, and has over 700 employees across 18 offices around the globe (www.partnersgroup.com).
“Under Leeds’s ownership, we were able to increase our rate of investment, which has increased the quality of our educational offering and value proposition for our parents and students while increasing our size, breadth, diversity and growth rate,” said George Bernstein, Nobel Learning President and CEO.
Investcorp, the buyer of Nobel Learning Communities, invests in mid-size companies operating in an array of industry sectors that have enterprise values of between $200 million and $1 billion and are located in North America or Western Europe. The group has offices in New York, London, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia (www.investcorp.com).
William Blair & Company and BMO Capital Markets served as financial advisors and Goodwin Procter served as legal counsel to Nobel Learning.
© 2015 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 3-30-15