Midlothian Capital Partners and a consortium of investors has agreed to acquire HB Education Limited, an outdoor study travel group for £467 million.
HB Education provides residential adventure and study trips for schools, youth organisations and young people through the PGL brand, along with educational travel tours for schools and further/higher education students through NST, EST and Studylink.
In addition, Travelplus (Germany) offers language travel and gap year experiences.
The vendor was Cox & Kings, the longest established travel company in the world.
This is Midlothian’s third consumer sector deal in the past two years following the £210 million acquisition of Dobbies Garden Centres from Tesco in 2016 and the £110m purchase of Park Leisure, the holiday home operator, in 2017.
MCP received financing support through funds managed by Ares Management. The existing HB Education management team will stay in post and plan to expand the business both in the UK and internationally. It currently owns 26 regional activity centres in the UK, France, Spain and Australia.
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