GSE School Investment Research
Every figure labelled. Every source named. The open directory of international school sale prices, EBITDA and EV/EBITDA multiples from 2021 to 2026, compiled and verified by Global Services in Education.
How every figure is graded
School transaction data is dominated by undisclosed prices and repeated estimates. This directory separates what is actually known from what is merely repeated.
| Grade | Meaning | Examples in this directory |
|---|---|---|
| Published | Disclosed by a party to the transaction in a regulatory filing, exchange announcement, audited accounts, official release or rated-debt documentation. Re-verified against the named primary source. | Nord Anglia USD 14.5bn (EQT release); Globeducate EUR 2bn EV and EBITDA (Wendel release); ISP 2021 at EUR 1.9bn (OMERS release); GEMS USD 3.25bn facility (DIB release) |
| Strong estimate | Reported by the FT, Bloomberg, Reuters or established trade press citing named or direct sources. Credible, not party-confirmed. | ISP EUR 7bn (Reuters, person familiar); Brookfield ~USD 2bn into GEMS (Bloomberg); XCL ~USD 1.3bn (Bloomberg) |
| Reported | Single-sourced, aggregator-sourced or rumoured. Directional only. | Cognita GBP 5bn target (Mergermarket); Spring/Brookfield ~USD 825m; Alpha Plus aggregator EBITDA |
| GSE derived | Calculated by GSE from published inputs. The calculation and assumptions are stated in the entry. | Globeducate 16.7x/19.4x multiple pair; Emirates REIT implied 9.5% to 11% education yield |
Where a figure in circulation could not be re-verified against its claimed source, it was downgraded or removed. One previously circulated multiple was withdrawn during verification; the entry says so.
Global platform transactions
The deals that set the top of the market, and the disclosure behind each headline number.
| Date | Transaction | Value | EBITDA | Multiple | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2025 | Nord Anglia Education · full change of control to EQT-led consortium (Neuberger Berman, CPP Investments, CF Alba, Dubai Holding). 80+ schools, 33 countries, 90,000+ students. | USD 14.5bn | Not disclosed | Not published | Published |
| Oct 2025 | ISP · CVC Strategic Opportunities takes 20%; Partners Group remains majority, OMERS remains invested. 111 schools, 25 countries. | EUR 7bn | Not disclosed | Not published | Strong estimate |
| May 2021 | ISP · OMERS acquires 25% from Partners Group. 50 schools, 15 countries. | EUR 1.9bn EV | ~EUR 100m Reported | ~19x Reported | Published |
| Oct 2024 | Globeducate · Wendel invests EUR 625m equity for ~50% alongside Providence. 67 schools, 11 countries. | EUR 2.0bn EV (1.86bn ex IFRS 16) | EUR 120m (96m ex IFRS 16) | 16.7x / 19.4x GSE derived | Published |
| Jun 2023 | IMG Academy · Endeavor sells the Bradenton sports-education institution to BPEA EQT in partnership with Nord Anglia; all-cash, SEC-filed. 100,000+ student-athletes across campus and online programmes. | USD 1.25bn EV | Not disclosed | Not published | Published |
| May 2022 | Inspired Education Group · Stonepeak makes a EUR 1.0bn minority equity investment; founder Nadim Nsouli retains control. Earlier backers GIC, TA Associates and Warburg Pincus (amounts undisclosed). 70+ schools, 20 countries at the time. | EUR 1.0bn (minority stake) | Not disclosed | Not published | Published |
| 2024-25 | Cognita · sale process stalled August 2025; talks with Blackstone and CVC around EUR 6bn. No completed transaction. 12 UK schools sold to Outcomes First Group during 2025. | GBP 5bn target | >GBP 250m | ~20x target only | Reported |
The Globeducate disclosure is the sector’s Rosetta Stone. Wendel published both the enterprise value and EBITDA on two bases. Including IFRS 16 the deal reads as roughly 16.7x; excluding it, roughly 19.4x. Two turns of multiple from lease accounting alone. No cross-deal comparison in this sector is valid without stating the treatment.
Most Southern European exposure sits inside these platforms rather than in separately priced local deals: Globeducate is Spain-headquartered, ISP holds Spanish and Portuguese schools, and Inspired holds assets in Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece. Individual school prices in those markets surface only where a listed seller must disclose, as with the H-FARM sale to Nord Anglia set out under Continental Europe. Higher education deals such as Permira and Universidad Europea are excluded from this directory as adjacent rather than K-12.
GCC transactions
The most transparent regional market, because listed operators and REITs must disclose. Where privately held deals dominate, headline values stay private.
| Date | Transaction | Value | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 2024 | GEMS Education · USD 3.25bn sustainability-linked facility underwritten by DIB-led consortium (Mashreq, ADCB, FAB), refinancing debt and funding minority exits including CVC. | USD 3.25bn | Published |
| 2024 | GEMS Education · Brookfield-led consortium equity (with GII, Marathon, SOFAZ). No enterprise value published; parties declined to disclose terms. | ~USD 2bn | Strong estimate |
| 2025 | Taaleem / Kids First Group · 95% of 34-nursery group; founder retains 5%. AED 730m Emirates Islamic facility within an AED 968m package. Consideration not disclosed. | Undisclosed | Published financing |
| Jul 2023 | Aldar Education · Kent College Dubai (AED 120m) and Virginia International PS Abu Dhabi (AED 210m), within AED 1.35bn cumulative commitment since 2022. | AED 330m | Published |
| Oct 2022 | Amanat / Human Development Company · 60% of Saudi special-education operator; up to SAR 47.1m contingent on top. | SAR 220.3m | Published |
| 2021-23 | Ataa Educational (Tadawul) · Naba’a SAR 92.0m; Al-Alson SAR 38.3m; Al Yasmin SAR 18.4m. The Arab Education and Training Group acquisition (Aug 2021) was filed at a SAR 138m headline and stated by Ataa at SAR 230m total transaction value inclusive of the Naba’a leg, so the two figures overlap and must not be summed. Freehold or leasehold status not stated in filings. | SAR 148.7m | Published |
| Apr 2021 | Amanat / Taaleem · Amanat sells its 21.7% stake, its first education exit; total cash return AED 225m including dividends, 2.2x money-on-money, 21% IRR, net gain AED 160m. Amanat named only a strategic buyer; press identifies Knowledge Fund Establishment, a Government of Dubai entity Reported. | AED 350m | Published |
| Dec 2025 | Almasar Alshamil Education IPO (Tadawul) · Amanat lists 30% of its specialist education platform. Priced at the top of the range at SAR 19.50; institutional book SAR 61.6bn, 102.9x oversubscribed; proceeds to Amanat as selling shareholder, 2.2x cash-on-cash. | SAR 1,997m cap (SAR 599m raised) | Published |
| Nov 2024 | EFG Hermes / Britus Education · seven schools across KSA, UAE and Bahrain via a USD 300m Saudi Education Fund; individual deal value undisclosed. | Undisclosed | Published fund |
UK and Ireland
Record deal volume driven by the VAT change, the sector’s clearest lesson in checking what a price actually includes, and a growing distressed channel where schools transfer through administration rather than a competitive sale.
Alpha Plus: the OpCo/PropCo case study
Inspired Education acquired 17 Alpha Plus schools, including Wetherby School and Pembridge Hall, at an enterprise value of over GBP 230m Published per Delancey’s own disclosure. The sale explicitly excluded the three pre-university Colleges and several freehold properties, which remain with Delancey client funds. Shortly before the sale, the group’s London freehold portfolio was valued at GBP 145m and the group was reported as loss-making at holding level Strong estimate.
An EBITDA figure of GBP 30.1m circulates from aggregator databases only and sits uneasily against the reported losses Reported. GSE does not publish a multiple for this transaction; an implied figure previously in circulation was withdrawn on verification.
Other UK and Ireland activity
| Date | Transaction | Value | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 2026 | Kirkham Grammar School · sold out of administration by joint administrators at Kroll to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Sanastha (MMYS), an international education group; school and site transferred. Consideration not disclosed. Kroll cites VAT on fees, rising operating and employment costs and family affordability pressure as the drivers of distress. | Undisclosed | Published deal |
| Jun 2025 | Dukes Education · growth investment from USS, Macquarie, Nomura and a KKR perpetual-capital vehicle; founder retains significant minority. | Undisclosed | Published deal |
| 2023 | Dukes / Institute of Education, Dublin · 93.3% stake. | ~GBP 114m | Strong estimate |
| Dec 2023 | Outcomes First Group · majority to TPG Rise with Investcorp, alongside Stirling Square. SEN platform; subsequently acquired 12 Cognita UK schools and others. | Undisclosed | Published deal |
| 2021-25 | Market volume · adviser VWV recorded independent-school transactions rising from 31 (2021/22) to 66 (2024/25). Individual prices in this segment are almost never disclosed. | n/a | Published |
Continental Europe
Prices surface where a listed seller is obliged to disclose. Where the seller is private, Continental European school deals close without a published number, which is why the platform transactions above carry most of the region’s valuation evidence.
| Date | Transaction | Value | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2025 | Nord Anglia / H-FARM International Schools (Italy) · three STEAM-focused schools at Venice, Vicenza and Rosà, 1,150+ students, sold by H-FARM SpA, listed on Euronext Growth Milan. Nord Anglia’s first schools in Italy, taking it to 35 countries. Agreement 26 June 2025, completed 1 August 2025. | over EUR 40m Strong estimate | Published deal |
| Sep 2024 | Inspired / Moraitis School (Greece) · Athens independent; stake and consideration not disclosed. Filed accounts to 30 June 2023 show turnover of EUR 14.6m and net profit of EUR 0.59m. | Undisclosed | Published deal |
| 2024 | Inspired / Costeas-Geitonas School (Greece) · control follows a reported EUR 20.2m share capital increase taking 89%, subscribed by a shipowner-controlled vehicle, with the founding family retaining 11%. Filed FY2023 turnover EUR 17.0m, net profit EUR 2.8m. The capital increase recapitalised the company rather than purchasing a clean control stake, and has not been re-verified against the GEMI filing. | EUR 20.2m Reported | Published deal |
| Nov 2024 | Cognita / Doukas School (Greece) · c.1,700 students, Cognita’s first Greek school. Consideration not disclosed. | Undisclosed | Published deal |
| 2024 | ISP / Platon Schools and Hellenic-German School; Dukes / International School of Athens (Greece) · four further entries by three groups inside twelve months. No consideration disclosed for any. | Undisclosed | Reported |
Greek trade press estimates these school acquisitions at EUR 15m to EUR 30m each depending on enrolment, campus and results Reported. The range is included because its circulation makes omission misleading, and it should not be used as a comparable: no party has disclosed a price on any of the five Greek transactions above.
Greece repriced faster than any market in this directory. Inspired, Cognita, ISP and Dukes all entered within roughly twelve months from mid-2024, against filed school revenues of EUR 14m to EUR 17m. Greek reporting puts private-school enrolment at about 125,000 students against roughly 70,000 during the crisis years. Four international groups competing for a market of that size, with no disclosed prices, is the condition in which repeated estimates harden into assumed fact.
Asia, Americas and Africa
| Date | Transaction | Value | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2026 | KKR / XCL Education · majority stake from TPG; Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam platform built on the former GEMS Asia schools (see historical benchmarks). Pending approvals; no party has published the value. | ~USD 1.3bn | Strong estimate |
| Jul 2026 | Lighthouse Learning / Pathways Gurgaon · premium Indian K-12; around 13x operating profit. | ~INR 1,500cr | Strong estimate |
| Dec 2022 | Paramount / XCL Education Malaysia · Bursa-listed Paramount disposes of its remaining stakes (30.3% of Paramount Education, 20% each of Sri KDU and Sri KDU Klang), completing its exit from K-12. Priced at a stated 25% discount to the RM160m call-option floor after pandemic-weakened performance. | RM120m cash | Published |
| May 2021 | KKR / EQuest (Vietnam) · Global Impact Fund growth investment. | ~USD 120m | Strong estimate |
| May 2022 | Inspired / Eleva Global Schools (Brazil) · the premium segment carved out of Eleva Educação: seven premium schools and two early-learning schools under the Escola Eleva, Gurilandia, Batutinhas and Leonardo da Vinci brands. Consideration not disclosed. Eleva rebranded as Grupo Salta after the carve-out. | Undisclosed | Published deal |
| Feb 2021 | Cogna (Saber) / Eleva (Brazil) · agreement for Saber to sell up to all of its owned K-12 schools to Eleva, disclosed by Vasta as part of the same package as the Editora Eleva purchase. School consideration not separately disclosed; around 50 schools transferred. | Undisclosed | Published deal |
| Feb 2024 | Grupo Salta (Brazil) · Atmos Capital and Warburg Pincus acquire a 32% minority stake from Gera Capital in Brazil’s largest K-12 group. Value not disclosed. | Undisclosed | Reported |
| Nov 2023 | Nord Anglia / Avenues · New York and Sao Paulo campuses; price undisclosed. | Undisclosed | Published deal |
| Jan 2026 | Store Capital / BASIS Silicon Valley · PropCo sale-leaseback of the San Jose campus; prior 2020 purchase price USD 77.7m. Rent and cap rate not disclosed. | USD 62.6m | Strong estimate |
| Jan 2024 | Heri Holdings / Nova Pioneer (Kenya) · confirmed PropCo sale-leaseback of the Tatu City property company; Nova Pioneer remains tenant. Consideration undisclosed. | Undisclosed | Published structure |
| Aug 2025 | ADvTECH / Regis Runda School, Nairobi. | ~ZAR 172m | Published |
| Nov 2024 | ADvTECH / Ethiopian school group (Flipper, five campuses). | USD 7.5m | Published |
| Jan 2025 | Enko Education · growth round led by Africa Capitalworks with Adiwale; buy-and-build strategy across 10 African countries. | USD 24m | Published |
| May 2024 | Primrose Schools (US) · Roark Capital runs a sale process via Baird. Reuters sources put the target at close to USD 2bn including debt on expected FY2024 EBITDA of about USD 85m and revenue of about USD 120m, with Roark seeking more than 20x. Franchisor economics, not school operations. No completed transaction disclosed. | ~USD 2bn target | Strong estimate |
| 2022 | Sycamore Partners / Goddard Systems (US) · franchisor of more than 600 premium early-education centres. Consideration not disclosed. | Undisclosed | Published deal |
| 2025 | Brookfield / Spring Education (US) · structured investment; not confirmed by the parties. | ~USD 825m | Reported |
| Oct 2024 | KinderCare IPO (NYSE: KLC) · Partners Group-backed US early-education leader lists; 24m shares at USD 24.00, raising USD 576m at a fully diluted market value of about USD 2.8bn; Partners Group retains about 71%. The public-market benchmark for US early education. | USD 2.8bn | Published |
Historical benchmark transactions
Pre-window deals with disclosed values, kept separate because their analytical value is the re-rating arc they reveal, not comparability with current pricing.
| Date | Transaction | Value | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Late 2020 | GEMS Asia exit · GEMS World Academy (Singapore) and the two GEMS Malaysia schools acquired by TPG-backed XCL Education (Temasek a shareholder); rebranded XCL World Academy and XCL schools in 2021. The origin of the platform KKR agreed to buy in 2026. | Undisclosed | Published deal; value undisclosed |
| Jul 2017 | Busy Bees / BrightPath Early Learning (Canada) · take-private of the TSX-V listed operator at C$0.80 per share in cash, a 46% premium to the 30-day VWAP, for an aggregate transaction value of about C$145m. 77 to 78 centres across Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. Busy Bees was owned by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Completed 28 July 2017; delisted the same day. The clearest disclosed Canadian early-education valuation. | C$145m | Published |
| 2018 | Spring Education / Nobel Learning Communities (US) · more than 25,000 students from preschool to high school, sold by Investcorp. Consideration not disclosed. The transaction that built the Spring platform later backed by Brookfield. | Undisclosed | Published deal |
| Feb 2020 | Paramount / Prestigion (now XCL) · first and larger tranche of the Malaysian K-12 exit: Sri KDU Schools and the R.E.A.L. Education Group majority. Announced June 2019 at RM540.5m; Paramount’s Bursa announcement records RM569,198,750 received on completion, with a pro forma disposal gain estimated at RM487.8m. | RM569.2m | Published |
| 2019-20 | NCLE (Tadawul) · Saudi Arabia’s first listed private-education company acquires Al-Ghad National Schools (SAR 36.7m) and Al-Khwarizmi Educational (SAR 30m), funded partly from IPO proceeds. Al-Ghad disclosed FY2019 revenue of SAR 23.5m against a net loss of SAR 4.3m, so the price reflects roughly 1.6x revenue on a loss-making asset. | SAR 66.7m | Published |
| 2019 | GEMS Education / CVC · reported USD 1bn or more for a 25% to 30% stake at a valuation above USD 4bn, per Bloomberg and Reuters citing people familiar; representatives for GEMS and CVC declined to comment. CVC exited via the 2024 Brookfield transaction. | ~USD 4bn EV | Strong estimate |
| 2018 | Cognita / Jacobs Holding · acquired from Bregal and KKR at a reported value of about GBP 2bn. | ~GBP 2bn | Strong estimate |
| Apr 2017 | Nord Anglia take-private · CPP Investments and Baring Private Equity Asia acquire all shares at USD 32.50 each; purchase price USD 4.3bn including repayment of debt, equity about USD 3.4bn. 43 schools, 15 countries. | USD 4.3bn | Published |
| Jun 2015 | Nord Anglia / Meritas · six schools (four North America, College du Leman in Switzerland, one in China; about 8,625 students). Agreement at USD 575m cash; completed at net cash consideration of USD 534m plus USD 25m deferred. | USD 575m | Published |
| May 2013 | Nord Anglia / WCL Group · UK-based operator acquired from Sovereign Capital; the widely cited value of about USD 222m has not been re-verified against a primary source. | ~USD 222m | Reported |
The re-rating arc is the point of this table. Nord Anglia moved from USD 4.3bn in 2017 to USD 14.5bn in 2025, a 3.4x re-rating in eight years, both endpoints party-published. ISP moved from EUR 1.9bn to a reported EUR 7bn in four years. Cognita, bought at about GBP 2bn in 2018, was marketed toward GBP 5bn without completing. Platform capital has repriced premium K-12 education far faster than school earnings have grown.
The GEMS paradox: the most repeated, least confirmed valuation in education. Across an abandoned 2017 London IPO at about USD 4bn, the 2019 CVC stake above USD 4bn, 2022 sale talks around USD 6bn and the 2024 Brookfield transaction, every GEMS valuation figure in circulation traces to unnamed sources, and the parties have declined to confirm a single one in eighteen years. What GEMS does publish is the debt side: sukuk documentation and bondholder reporting, from which Fitch estimates 2024 EBITDA of about USD 380m on revenue of USD 1.4bn. Earnings semi-public, enterprise value never disclosed. Repetition is not disclosure, and no figure in this directory is graded as though it were.
Education real estate yields
Where school property trades separately from the operating business, published yields exist. They anchor every OpCo/PropCo valuation split.
| Market | Evidence | Yield | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| UAE net-lease REIT | Al Mal Capital REIT: triple-net school assets, 100% occupancy, ~20-year WAULT; 7.0% distributed since 2023, annualised 7.5% for FY2025 on a portfolio now including its first healthcare assets. Reference deals: AED 300m for two Al Shola campuses; Kent College Dubai freehold on a 25-year lease. | 7.0% to 7.5% | Published |
| UAE (Emirates REIT) | Education portfolio USD 178m at end-2024, all triple-net, 25% of contracted income; per-school WALEs 18.8, 20.2 and 6.7 years. Implied net yield derived by GSE from the disclosed income share; the REIT publishes no education-specific yield. | ~9.5% to 11% | GSE derived |
| US early education | Net-lease cap rates: 6.91% average (B+E, mid-2025); ~7.11% median across a 600+ transaction dataset. | 6.9% to 7.1% | Strong estimate |
| Saudi REITs | Fund-level yields for education-inclusive portfolios: Jadwa REIT Saudi 7.8%, Al Rajhi 6.5%, Taleem 6.3%, Riyad 5.3%. Fund yields, not asset-level school yields. | 5.3% to 7.8% | Strong estimate |
| UK nurseries | A marketed six-asset portfolio on 27-year WAULT FRI leases implied a going-in yield of about 8.8% on asking, derived by GSE from published rent and price. | ~8.8% | GSE derived |
The widely quoted benchmark of school rent at 8% to 12% of revenue is a market rule of thumb. No published source verifies it, and GSE labels it accordingly.
The listed comparables
Six listed vehicles give the sector a continuous public mark. They are the only school valuations that reprice daily, which makes them the natural sanity check on any private multiple.
| Operator | Exchange | Market | What it benchmarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| SISB PCL | SET (Bangkok) | Thailand | The only listed pure-play K-12 operator in Southeast Asia; six campuses. Its sharp de-rating from the 2022 to 2024 growth peak, after enrolment missed guidance, is the clearest public evidence that school valuations turn on student-number delivery rather than sector narrative. |
| Taaleem Holdings | DFM (Dubai) | UAE | Listed premium GCC K-12; the paired comparison against SISB frames the GCC-versus-Southeast-Asia rating gap. |
| NCLE | Tadawul | Saudi Arabia | Saudi Arabia’s first listed private-education company; capital SAR 430m across 43m shares. |
| Ataa Educational | Tadawul | Saudi Arabia | Listed Saudi K-12 consolidator with a filed acquisition history, so its trading multiple can be read against the prices it actually paid. |
| Almasar Alshamil | Tadawul | Saudi Arabia | Specialist education and SEN; listed December 2025 at a SAR 1,997m market capitalisation. |
| Grupo Salta Educação | B3 (São Paulo) | Brazil | Brazil’s largest K-12 group by students and schools, around 170 schools and 118,000 students. The only listed comparable for scaled mid-market Latin American K-12, on a different model from the premium platforms above. |
| Amanat Holdings | DFM (Dubai) | GCC | Not an operator; useful as a listed proxy for GCC education investment returns, with its Taaleem and Almasar outcomes both disclosed. |
GSE does not print point-in-time trading multiples here. Market data providers disagree on EV/EBITDA and P/E for these names depending on lease treatment, minority interests and the earnings period used, and any figure published today is stale within a quarter. Multiples for these six are calculated at each quarterly refresh against the named source and date, on the same basis as the private transactions above.
The multiples framework
Read together, the verified evidence supports the following working ranges. Scaled premium global platforms transact in the high teens to low twenties on EBITDA, with Globeducate’s published 16.7x to 19.4x pair as the cleanest anchor and Nord Anglia and ISP’s headline values consistent with the top of that band on estimated earnings. Individual schools and established groups have historically transacted at 8x to 14x, with premium single assets and regional platforms in supply-constrained markets now underwritten at 12x to 17x. Mid-market schools sit in the high single digits to low teens, nurseries at roughly 3x to 7x, and SEN commands a premium supported by structural demand. India’s premium K-12 segment printed about 13x operating profit on the Pathways transaction. The frameworks behind these ranges are set out in the GSE guide to how to value an international school.
Two adjustments must precede any use of these ranges. Establish the IFRS 16 treatment of both EV and EBITDA, and establish whether the price includes freehold property. A freehold-included deal attaches a 6% to 9% property yield play to an operating multiple, and will always print higher than a leasehold operator of the same quality. The structural logic is explained in the GSE guide to the PropCo/OpCo model in school development.
One further disclosed multiple is worth recording even though it falls outside school operations. In February 2021 Vasta Platform (Nasdaq: VSTA) agreed to acquire Editora Eleva, a K-12 learning-systems provider, from Eleva Educação for BRL 580m payable over five years, and stated in its own release that this corresponded to 16.6x Editora Eleva’s FY2020 EBITDA Published. Curriculum and education-services businesses are adjacent to school operations and are excluded from this directory’s ranges, but a party-stated multiple is rare enough in this sector to note.
The same caution applies to franchise systems. Reuters sources put Primrose Schools at close to USD 2bn against roughly USD 85m of EBITDA on about USD 120m of revenue, an EBITDA margin near 70% and a target above 20x. Those are franchisor royalty economics rather than school operating economics, and the two are not comparable: an operator carries the teaching payroll, the property and the enrolment risk that a franchisor does not. Franchise multiples in the low twenties should never be cited as evidence for what an operating school is worth.
Frequently asked questions
What EBITDA multiple do international schools sell for?
Party-published evidence puts scaled premium platforms in the mid-teens to low twenties: Globeducate transacted at roughly 16.7x including IFRS 16 (about 19.4x excluding it) on figures disclosed by Wendel, while Nord Anglia’s USD 14.5bn and ISP’s reported EUR 7bn imply high-teens to low-twenties on estimated earnings. Premium single assets and regional platforms are generally underwritten at 12x to 17x. Sub-scale and mid-market schools trade lower, and nurseries at roughly 3x to 7x.
Do published school sale prices include the property?
Often, and this is the largest source of confusion in the sector. A freehold-included price capitalises both the operating business and the real estate, so it prints a higher headline multiple than a leasehold operator of identical quality. The Alpha Plus sale to Inspired, at over GBP 230m, explicitly excluded several freeholds and the three Colleges, which the seller retained. Always confirm which properties transfer before treating a headline price as a comparable.
How reliable are reported school deal values?
It varies widely, which is why every figure here carries a grade. Nord Anglia’s USD 14.5bn, Globeducate’s EUR 2bn and the GEMS USD 3.25bn financing are published by parties. Others repeated constantly in the press, including ISP’s EUR 7bn, Brookfield’s roughly USD 2bn into GEMS and Cognita’s GBP 5bn target, have never been party-confirmed and are labelled as estimates or reported figures.
What yield does school real estate produce?
The cleanest published evidence is from GCC net-lease REITs: Al Mal Capital REIT delivered 7.0% distributed since 2023 on triple-net school assets, rising to an annualised 7.5% for FY2025. US early-education net-lease cap rates cluster around 6.9% to 7.1%. GSE derives an implied 9.5% to 11% net yield on Emirates REIT’s education portfolio from its audited disclosures, labelled as a derivation.
Why do IFRS 16 lease rules change school valuation multiples?
IFRS 16 moves rent below the operating line, inflating reported EBITDA, and adds lease liabilities to net debt. Wendel’s Globeducate disclosure shows the effect precisely: about EUR 2bn EV including IFRS 16 against EUR 1.86bn excluding it, and EBITDA of about EUR 120m against EUR 96m. The same deal reads as 16.7x on one basis and 19.4x on the other.
The open dataset
The full transaction dataset is free to download, reuse and cite under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Global Services in Education (GSE), International School M&A Transaction Dataset.
Download the dataset (CSV)For the interpretive companion, the GSE School Valuation Briefing covering underwriting ranges, OpCo/PropCo structuring and negotiation benchmarks, contact GSE to request a copy.
Methodology, corrections and disclaimer
Every figure is traced to its earliest identifiable source; a number repeated across twenty outlets counts as one source, not twenty. Figures claiming party disclosure are checked against the primary document itself: the filing, release or prospectus. Figures that fail the check are downgraded or removed, with material changes noted in the entry and the changelog. Structural facts, including OpCo/PropCo treatment, IFRS 16 basis and which properties transferred, are recorded wherever determinable, because they change what a headline number means.
The directory deliberately excludes three things: estimated prices for undisclosed deals, valuations attributed to unnamed advisory sources, and any multiple where either the value or the earnings figure fails verification. A smaller directory that holds is worth more than a longer one that does not.
The dataset is licensed CC BY 4.0. Cite as: Global Services in Education (GSE), International School M&A Transaction Dataset, with the access date. When quoting a figure, quote its grade with it. GSE welcomes corrections supported by documentation via the GSE contact page; corrections are acknowledged in the changelog.
This directory is provided for information only. It is not investment advice, and GSE accepts no liability for decisions made in reliance on it. Figures marked as estimates or reported should be independently verified before use in any valuation or investment decision.
Changelog · 26 Jul 2026: first publication; one previously circulated Alpha Plus multiple withdrawn on verification; AMCREIT updated to FY2025 disclosures; IMG Academy (USD 1.25bn EV, SEC-filed) added to global platforms; historical benchmarks section added (Nord Anglia 2013/2015/2017, GEMS/CVC 2019, Cognita 2018, GEMS Asia exit to XCL); KinderCare IPO added as the US early-education public-market benchmark; GEMS valuation history case study added with sourcing analysis; Stonepeak EUR 1.0bn investment in Inspired added; Kirkham Grammar School administration sale added; Southern Europe platform note added; exchange-filing sweep added Amanat/Taaleem, Almasar Alshamil IPO, Paramount/XCL (both tranches), NCLE, Ataa scope correction, H-FARM/Nord Anglia and the Greek 2024 entries; Continental Europe and listed comparables sections created; dataset expanded to 53 rows; South America entries added (Inspired/Eleva Global Schools, Cogna-Saber schools to Eleva, Grupo Salta minority), Grupo Salta added to listed comparables, Vasta/Editora Eleva 16.6x recorded as an adjacent disclosed multiple; North America added (Primrose process, Sycamore/Goddard, Spring/Nobel Learning) with Busy Bees/BrightPath C$145m as the Canadian benchmark, plus a note distinguishing franchisor from operating economics.