Investors are interested in English education for children under EF Education.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Financial Graffiti” (ID: caijingtuya ), author StoneJin, editor tuya.
According to the company’s intelligence expert “Financial Graffiti”, EF English First, a global English education and training institution, is currently in the process of selling some of its Chinese businesses at a price of US$1 billion to US$2 billion. JPMorgan Chase serves as the financial advisor.
In the first round of bidding for EF English First, Gao Yi Capital and Permira, the largest European private equity fund, are listed. In addition, Huaping Investment also has an investment intention for some or all of China’s business of EF English First.
Public information shows that EF English First is called “EducationFirst”. It was founded by BertilHult in 1965 and entered China in 1993. It is one of the earliest foreign language training institutions in China. At present, there are more than 300 teaching centers in more than 60 cities in China, providing language training courses for young children and adults of all ages.
It is worth mentioning that, For more than 50 years since its establishment, EF English First has never introduced external investors and has always adhered to the family business model.
Until February this year, Bloomberg reported that EF English First hopes to focus on its business by acquiring new capital and expanding its business presence in China.
However, Bloomberg quoted relevant sources as saying that some investors who participated in the first round of bidding only interested in EF English First’s youth curriculum in China, and did not care about adult training business .
Children’s education is the most important source of income for EF English First in China, and China has become the world’s second largest market for EF English First.
From the perspective of potential investors, Gaochun Capital, although education is not the main investment direction of Gaochun Capital in the past and now, since 2017, its shots on the educational track have become more frequent. Especially in the primary market.
End of 2017 So far, Gaochun Capital has successively votedCapitalized programming cats, National Online, Magic Ears, Walnut Programming, Testworm, Gordon Education, Yunshu wrote a total of 7 start-up projects, including several consecutive rounds of coded walnut programming.
In addition, in the secondary market where Gaochun Capital is more familiar, it completed a US$500 million equity investment with Good Future Education Group in February this year. After the transaction was completed, the shareholding ratio of Gaochun reached 7%.
“Education is an investment that never needs to be withdrawn, and education is the most rewarding investment.” Zhang Lei, founder and CEO of Gaochun Capital, said in an interview with CCTV.
Therefore, if the final transaction price is within reasonable limits, Gaochun Capital will become the owner of EF English First Education China Education.