Investcorp to buy US private education provider Nobel Learning

Investcorp has agreed to acquire Nobel Learning, a provider of private school education in the United States, it said on Monday.

Investcorp will buy the company from Leeds Equity Partners, a New York-based private equity group, the Bahrain-listed alternative investment firm said.

Investcorp did not provide a value for the deal.

Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat is a co-investor and partner on the deal.

Nobel Learning, established in 1984, operates a network of 176 schools across 18 US states educating about 25,000 pupils from preschool through to high school, employing approximately 5,000 teachers and staff.

The agreement to purchase Nobel Learning follows plans to acquire Spain’s Fritta, a specialist ceramics maker, and the purchase of a majority stake in Turkey’s Arvento Mobile Systems, a telematics company. Telematics is a interdisciplinary field encompassing telecommunications and vehicular technologies.

This year it has also bought, through its US-based real estate arm, a portfolio of residential properties for approximately $300 million.

Last year it acquired PRO Unlimited, a US-based provider of workforce software and services and the specialist Italian retailer Dainese at an enterprise value of €130m (Dh518m).

Investcorp posted a 5 per cent increase in net income to $45.3m in the first half of last year.

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