Sovereign Capital acquires schools business

Sovereign Capital, a UK private equity firm, has acquired World Class Learning Schools, a chain of six schools in a £34m (US$68m) deal. The company operates the British Schools in America chain, which comprise five schools in the US and one in Qatar.

Sovereign will look to open schools in Asia and Eastern Europe to expand the business, which last year generated pre-tax profit of £1.3m.

In 2007, Sovereign sold another schools business. Eleven-school strong Alpha Plus Holdings Ltd was bought by investment advisor Delancey for an undisclosed sum, enabling Sovereign to recoup 5.5x its investment.