BPEA EQT, Nord Anglia buy sports education brand
BPEA EQT and Nord Anglia Education, one of its portfolio companies, have agreed to acquire IMG Academy – originally known as Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy – for an enterprise valuation of USD 1.25bn.
The seller is Endeavour Group Holdings, a global sports and entertainment company that owns the likes of media and talent management agencies IMG and WME as well as mixed martial arts organisation UFC. IMG acquired what became IMG Academy from Bollettieri in 1987. IMG itself was bought by Endeavour in 2014.
Bollettieri pioneered the concept of the tennis boarding school in 1978 and went on to train a host of leading players, from Andre Agassi and Jim Courier to Monica Seles and Maria Sharapova. IMG recognised it could form a template for other sports and went on to add programmes for golf, football, baseball, basketball, and track and field.
Headquartered in Florida, IMG Academy now operates a sports-focused boarding school, sports camps, online coaching, and college recruiting. It supports more than 100,000 student-athletes, and it helped place 30,000 students onto college sports rosters in 2022 alone.
BPEA EQT intends to help the company expand across multiple Asian markets, including Singapore, India, Vietnam, Greater China, and Indonesia. These are proven territories for Nord Anglia, an Asia-centric K-12 school operator that expanded globally and now has 82 establishments in 33 countries, supporting over 75,000 students.
“IMG Academy’s brand is globally recognised and we see compelling opportunities in supporting its international expansion, including Asia, and broadening its educational offering, leveraging BPEA EQT’s insights from having led Nord Anglia Education’s growth in the region,” said Jack Hennessy, a partner and co-head of education at BPEA EQT, in a statement.
The private equity firm – formed last year through the merger of Baring Private Equity Asia and EQT – is committing capital to the investment from its eighth pan-Asian buyout fund, which closed in September 2022 on USD 11.2bn. With this deal, the vehicle will be 20%-20% deployed.
BPEA EQT bought Nord Anglia in 2008 through a privatisation and expanded its size and geographical scope considerably through a string of add-on acquisitions. The company went public in the US in 2014 but was privatised once again – at a valuation of USD 4.3bn – in 2017.
BPEA EQT, which owned two-thirds of Nord Anglia at the time, participated in the privatisation through its sixth fund. This involved taking out positions held by its third and fourth funds. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), a longstanding LP in BPEA EQT’s funds, came into the deal as a substantial co-investor.
The private equity firm was advised on IMG Academy acquisition by Deloitte, Oliver Wyman, and Ropes & Gray.
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