Carlyle Finds Buyer for WSI
Pearson plc picked up the Wall Street Institute for $92 million, building out its global vocational platform.
July 29, 2010
The Carlyle Group and Citigroup Private Equity are exiting their investment in The Wall Street Institute, a provider of English language training for adults. Pearson plc is the buyer, paying $92 million in cash for the business.
Carlyle and Citi originally acquired the Wall Street Institute in 2005, carving it out of Laureate Education in an undisclosed deal. Carlyle invested out of its $600 million Carlyle Venture Partners II fund.
For Pearson, the acquisition follows a deal last year, in which it acquired WSI’s Chinese subsidiary, Wall Street English, for roughly $145 million.
The most recent deal was valued at around 1.5x the WSI’s 2009 revenues.
Pearson continues to reshuffle its assets. It acquired Medley Global Advisors earlier this year, buying the geopolitical and macroeconomic information provider from Castanea Partners and Boston Ventures. Meanwhile, it exited its majority stake in Interactive Data through the company’s sale to Silver Lake and Warburg Pincus.
The WSI investments seem to speak to the company’s efforts in education recently. It acquired UK vocational training company Melorio Plc in May for $143 million.
Analysts at UBS, in a research note found on Thomson One Analytics, wrote that they would not be surprised to see “repeated similar announcements in the coming months,” alluding to the likelihood for additional small tuck-in deals.
The sale came on the same day Carlyle announced an investment in energy IT specialist Quorum Business Solutions.
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