PE-owned Australian childcare providers to merge

The proposed merger was disclosed in a review notice by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Approval is required from it and the Foreign Investment Review Board for the deal to go through.

Camp Australia started out in 1987 as a provider of after-school sports coaching. After-school care programs were introduced seven years later and the company now operates approximately 742 sites nationwide. Bain announced its acquisition of the business in December of last year, having reportedly overcome competition from the likes of KKR.

JAG is one of the only two other outside school hours care businesses with national scale. It operates in about 400 schools under the OSHClub and Helping Hands Network brands. When Advent bought JAG in 2015 it said it would pursue bolt-on opportunities in states where the company was underrepresented.

Bain's agreement to buy Camp Australia came a few months after it invested in Only About Children, which operates pre-school campuses for children up to the age of six in Sydney and Melbourne. Other recent private equity activity in the space includes the Partners Group's purchase of daycare provider Guardian Early Learning Group from Partners Group at a valuation of A$440 million ($313 million).

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Buyouts
• Consumer
• Australia
• Bain Capital Asia
• Advent Partners
• M&A