Riverside adds to Australia e-learning platform
The Riverside Company has acquired C-Learning, an Australia-based developer of online education courses, to complement its existing education asset in the country, Learning Seat.
The size of the deal was not disclosed. Riverside bought Learning Seat in November 2012 - the first investment from its second Asia Pacific fund and the firm's 300th acquisition globally.
Based in Melbourne, C-Learning specializes in producing content for quick and cost-effective learning, and also runs an online platform - C-Netic - that provides training to over 300,000 learners in 150 organizations globally. Clients include Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Hitachi, Vodafone, the City of Melbourne and the Australian Institute of Management.
Working with Honda, the company used its C-Netic platform to deliver hundreds of hours of e-learning content covering new model and sales skills training as well as technical courses to almost 200 vehicle dealers nationwide.
The addition of C-Learning will bring new technical capabilities, content development expertise and customers to Learning Seat. Previously a division of News Limited, Learning Seat provides online courses, training tools and other resources geared towards compliance, professional development and accredited training. It has over 450 clients and 700,000 users in Australia and New Zealand.
"We're delighted to bolster Learning Seat's comprehensive training offerings with the addition of an excellent company like C-Learning," said Nicholas Speer, a principal at Riverside, in a statement. "Customers of both companies will see significant benefits from this powerful combination, as it combines two strong teams with complementary capabilities."
Riverside Asia-Pacific Fund II reached a final close of $235 million in May 2014, exceeding its original target of $150 million. The vehicle targets buyouts of companies with enterprise values of $25-150 million, typically family-founded businesses or small corporate carve-outs. Around 40% of the corpus is expected to be deployed in Australia.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia provided debt financing for the C-Learning transaction, with KPMG and Landers & Rogers providing financial and legal advice, respectively. Co-investment partner Wingate Group also worked on the transaction.
More on Buyouts
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.