CFCG launches $200m education sector fund
Hong Kong-listed education sector investor China First Capital Group (CFCG) has launched a $200 million fund that will establish and acquire preschools in China.
LP support will include companies directly or indirectly owned by CFCG as well as MindChamps PreSchool, a Singapore-based educational institute and kindergarten operator. CFCG and MindChamps will each take a 50% interest in the GP.
Capital raised will be applied to the operation, training, and upgrading of preschools under the MindChamps brand. CFCG and MindChamps will own 51% and 49%, respectively, of an operating company that will serve as master franchisee. CFCG currently holds about a 5% stake in MindChamps.
“[W]e are very confident that MindChamps PreSchool can help elevate China’s preschool standards to a whole new level,” Wilson Sea, chairman and executive director at CFCG, said in a statement. “We highly value the ties with MindChamps PreSchool and see the joint venture as an important strategic platform of the group’s education operation in China.”
MindChamps claims to be the largest operator and franchisor of premium-range preschools centers in Singapore and has established a footprint across China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Australia, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates. Its expansion program in China will implement the “Champion Mindset” theory developed by Allan Snyder, the founder of the Centre for the Mind at the University of Sydney.
CFCG operates via bases across China, Singapore, and the UK. It recorded profit of RMB178.7 million ($28.2 million) in 2016 versus a RMB22.6 million loss the prior year. Revenue improved 35% during 2016 to about RMB1.5 billion.
Previous investments include China’s Kunming Professional College of Arts, Beijing Experimental Foreign Language School, and Australia’s G8 Education. Last year, CFCG acquired a controlling stake in SJW International, a video English training platform considered the largest player in Korea’s online adult language learning space.
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