NEW YORK, August 4, 2006 - Castle Harlan, Inc., the New York private equity investment firm, announced today that its Australian affiliate, CHAMP Private Equity, had agreed to acquire Study Group International, one of the world's largest private providers of educational programs for pre-college and college students from more than 120 countries.
Study Group is currently owned by DMG Information, a subsidiary of the Daily Mail Group in London. The transaction was valued at A$176.4 million.
Founded in 1994, Study Group operates through a network of colleges and teaching centers in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States to offer university degree programs, as well as college-preparatory courses and English language training. It also offers vocational training in Australia.
Last year, more than 35,000 students participated in Study Group's programs, most of them recruited by Study Group's global network of 2,300 independent agents.
CHAMP said Petersen Investments of Sydney would partner with it in the investment. Arvid Petersen, the head of Petersen Investments, was managing director of Study Group Australia from 1995 to 2004 and will become chairman of the company after the acquisition. A predecessor of CHAMP had an ownership stake in Study Group Australia in the 1990s.
"The growth in the number of international students has been and will continue to be driven by the rising wealth of the populations in developing countries, particularly China, India, Brazil and Russia," said Ben Sebel, a CHAMP director who led the firm's negotiating team. "These families more and more want their children to be educated overseas."
"No single competitor has Study Group's breadth and depth of product offerings on an international basis," Sebel added.
He noted that the company has more than 90 university partners worldwide, and admission centers in Australia, the U.K. and the United States. It also has 15 regional offices throughout Asia, Europe and South America. The company is based in London.
CHAMP, based in Sydney, represents the largest independent private equity group in Australasia. It was formed in 2000 by Australian Mezzanine Investments Ltd. and Castle Harlan, Inc.
The CHAMP I and CHAMP II Funds have approximately A$1.5 billion of equity capital. The CHAMP I Funds have completed seven management buyouts with a combined transaction value in excess of A$1.2 billion. They included Austar Communications, Australia's second largest subscription TV operator, providing satellite-delivered services to more than 500,000 subscribers in regional and rural Australia; Bradken Limited, a leading Australian manufacturer of steel consumables and capital equipment for the mining and railroad industries, and Penrice Limited, the only manufacturer of sodium carbonate (soda ash) and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) in Southeast Asia, supplying more than 85 percent of the soda ash and more than 90 percent of the baking soda used by Australian industry. CHAMP is currently investing equity from the CHAMP II funds.
Castle Harlan, founded in 1987, invests in controlling interests in the buyout and development of middle-market companies in North America, Europe and Australasia. Its team of 19 investment professionals in New York has completed 45 acquisitions since its inception with a total value in excess of US$8.7 billion.