Business
Asquith Schools was one of the UK’s largest single private day schools group, consisting of nine schools educating around 2,500 pupils aged between 3 and 16 years-old .
The business’s strength lay in its geographical spread of schools, the quality of operations, its asset base and one of the best management teams in the sector.
Market
We were one of the first investors to identify the long-term growth potential of the UK private education sector.
Our review of the market showed that the private day school sector was attractive as there were clear opportunities to enhance operational efficiencies, improve facility standards further and acquire quality add-on assets to build scale and reach.
Strategy
Lyceum Capital set out to build the largest and best performing private education group in the UK through:
- Consolidating and professionalising operations
- Investing to deliver better service, improved educational standards and better exam results
- Building scale through targeted add-on acquisitions
Outcomes
We separated the schools and nursery businesses, establishing independent management for both. We identified and completed two add-on acquisitions for the schools division and invested more than £2.5 million in the sites and the business’s infrastructure.
The company increased the number of school sites from nine to 19, grew pupil numbers to 4,300 and staff to over 600. EBITDA grew from £2.7m in 2001 to £5.3m at the time of sale in November 2004 to Cognita Schools, a schools group led by Chris Woodhead, former Chief Inspector of Schools in the UK.