IES simplifies ownership in Spain and sells holding in a joint venture owned school – capital gain of MSEK 25
Internationella Engelska Skolan i Sverige Holdings II AB (“Internationella Engelska Skolan” or “IES”) has sold all of its shares in a joint venture owned Spanish school, Colegio IALE in Valencia, to the coowners, the Monzonis family. IES owns 50% of the school and IES’s shareholding is being sold for MEUR 3.86 (enterprise value) and entails a capital gain of around MSEK 25 for IES. After the sale, the Monzonis family will own 100% of Colegio IALE.
The sale is part of the simplification of the ownership of Spanish operations that began in summer 2018, when IES acquired the Monzonis family’s share in three other schools in Spain.
Cecilia Marlow, Interim CEO of Internationella Engelska Skolan, comments: “We’ve had a successful collaboration with the family since we first invested in Spain in 2016. Both parties have agreed, however, that simplifying the ownership of these schools is the best way forward since IES intends to keep growing quickly in Spain. The school has more students and better profitability today than it did three years ago, and we look forward to continued close dialogue with the family.”
After the sale, IES has five schools in Spain, which are all IES subsidiaries. These five Spanish schools have a total of around 2,600 students.
For more information please contact:
Emma Rheborg, Head of Communication and IR, IES
Telephone: +46 (0)768 511 540
E-mail: emma.rheborg@engelska.se
Internationella Engelska Skolan i Sverige Holdings II AB (publ) discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the EU’s Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the above contact, on 5 July 2019 at 14:30. CEST.
About Internationella Engelska Skolan
Internationella Engelska Skolan, IES, is one of the leading free school operators in Sweden with some 25,600 students at 36 schools, and about 2,600 students at its schools in Spain.
IES Sweden operates schools for students in grades F-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. IES’s results on the national tests in grade 9 are far above average in Sweden.
Internationella Engelska Skolan was founded in 1993 and is in its 26th 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 targets.
Up to half of the teaching in IES schools in Sweden is in English, by native English speaking teachers. Over 800 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.
IES’s student base is in growing strongly. Over the past ten years, total operating income has increased organically by an average of 19% per year. In the most recent financial year 2017/18, which concluded on 30 June 2018, total operating income was MSEK 2,347.9, an increase of some 15% year on year. As of 31 March 2019, there were approximately 199,700 applications in the waiting list 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 foundations in the US, and IES’s founder Barbara Bergström. At the end of February 2019, the 10 largest shareholders also included Paradigm Capital, Swedbank Robur fonder, the Third Swedish National Pension Fund, SEB fonder and AMF Försäkring & Fonder (owned jointly by LO, The Swedish Trade Union Confederation and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise).
Tags: