Acquisition of Colegio Joyfe

Internationella Engelska Skolan i Sverige Holdings II AB (”Internationella Engelska Skolan” or ”IES”) has as of today, 10 January 2020, through its wholly-owned Spanish subsidiary International Education Partnership S.L (”IEP”) acquired 100% of the shares in Colegio Joyfe, a private school in Madrid, Spain.

Colegio Joyfe has 2,000 students aged from 3 to 18 years. It is a fee-paying bilingual private school which follows the Spanish curriculum. The school is located in eastern Madrid and has excellent premises including indoor and outdoor sport facilities.

Anna Sörelius Nordenborg, CEO of Internationella Engelska Skolan said: ”With this acquisition we almost double the number of students at our schools in Spain and are now the sixth largest non-religious school group in the country. Colegio Joyfe is a renowned school which has been owned by the same family for the past fifty years, who have always operated the school with a bilingual mindset. We are excited to continue the development of this fantastic school together with students and staff.”

The acquisition includes the school building and the acquisition price (enterprise value) amounts to MEUR 16. IEP has partly financed the acquisition with additional loans of MEUR 11. Operating income for the school for the financial year 2018/19 was approximately MEUR 9.6 and EBITDA approximately MEUR 2.5.

With the acquisition of Colegio Joyfe today and the school in Zaragoza (which is expected to be finalised during this quarter) Internationella Engelska Skolan has seven wholly-owned schools in Spain with a total of 4,800 students.

For more information please contact:

Emma Rheborg, Head of Communication & IR, IES
Telephone: + 46 768 511 540
E-mail: emma.rheborg@engelska.se 

Internationella Engelska Skolan i Sverige Holdings II AB discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the EU’s Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the above contact, on 10 January 2020 at 13.00 CET.

About Internationella Engelska Skolan

Internationella Engelska Skolan, IES, is one of the leading free school operators in Sweden with some 26,800 students at 37 schools, and about 4,800 students at its schools in Spain (including the past two acquisitions).

IES Sweden conducts school operations from “förskoleklass” (grade F) up to the third and final year of upper secondary school (grade 12). Its main focus is grades 4-9, what is often called “middle school.” Within the compulsory school system in Sweden, IES is the leading independent operator, with 17 of the 20 largest free schools. The academic results of IES schools on the national tests in grade 9 are far above average in Sweden.

Internationella Engelska Skolan was founded in 1993 and is in its 27th year of operation. Throughout this period, its schools have been defined by the three core convictions of its founder, Mrs. Barbara Bergström:

• A safe and orderly environment, where teachers can teach and students learn.
• To command the English language − the key to the world.
• High academic expectations and aspirations.

Up to half of teaching is conducted in English by teachers whose native language is English. Over 900 teachers with qualified foreign teaching degrees are currently teaching in IES schools. They are mainly recruited from Canada, the USA, the UK and South Africa.

The IES student base is growing strongly. Over the past ten years, total operating income has increased by an average of 19% per year. In the most recent financial year 2018/19, which concluded on 30 June 2019, total operating income was MSEK 2,781.1, an increase of some 18% year on year. As of 30 September 2019, there were approximately 204,700 applications in the queue to secure a place in the Swedish schools for the current and forthcoming years.

Internationella Engelska Skolan has been listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Mid Cap, with the ticker ENG, since 2016.

The largest (indirect) shareholders of IES are TA Associates of the US, which has close affiliations to leading universities and trusts in the US, Barbara Bergström, the founder of IES, and Paradigm Capital AG through different funds. At the end of September 2019, the 10 largest shareholders also included Swedbank Robur fonder and AMF Försäkring & Fonder (owned jointly by LO, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise).