Two private equity firms, CVC and Partners Group, have partnered to buy a leading international private school group, International Schools Partnership (ISP).
It was announced this morning that CVC Strategic Opportunities (CVC) will hold a 20 per cent stake in the business, which has been valued at €7 billion, making them a significant minority shareholder. Partners Group, who founded ISP in 2013, will be majority shareholders and OMERS, which bought a minority stake in the group in 2021, will also hold shares.
ISP has 111 schools which educate over 110,000 students internationally. For perspective, this amounts to around one sixth of the number of children in UK private schools, with there being approximately 650,000 independently educated students in Britain, according to the Independent Schools Council.
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The group has schools worldwide, with The Hamilton International School in Doha, Abu Dhabi’s Aspen Heights British School and British School of Geneva among some of them, educating children from ages four to 18.
‘Partners Group has always shared our fundamental belief in putting students and their education first’ said Steve Brown, Chief Executive Officer, International Schools Partnership. ‘As we reflect on our growth to-date, we look forward to welcoming our new shareholders at CVC on board and continuing our mission.’
Andrew Deakin, Partner, Partners Group, said: ‘ISP is one of our proudest achievements as a private equity platform. We started with just an idea, a team and a thematic conviction that the global education market would continue to grow.’
The takeover comes at a time when private equity firms are heavily investing in the private schools sector, with independent education increasingly regarded as a reliable investment
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In June 2024 the Canadian-American alternative asset manager Brookfield bought a majority stake in GEMS education for $2 billion. This year, GEMS, which operates 52 schools across the Middle East, opened the GEMS School of Research and Innovation in Dubai, which cost $100 million to build and open. This week, it was also revealed that GEMS submitted an initial bid to acquire Saudi Arabia’s Ajialuna Educational Co, whose private and international schools educate over 14,000 children.
While there is a trend of private equity firms buying private school groups, not every deal makes it all the way. A potential €6 billion deal for CVC and asset manager Blackstone to buy educational group Cognita stalled in August. The group runs more than 100 schools across 20 countries, 38 of which are in the UK.
Meanwhile, UK private schools have had to become more business-minded to keep financially afloat following the Labour government’s introduction of VAT to their fees in January 2025. Annual fees at Westminster School rose from $78,600 in 2024 to $89,200 in 2025, and fees at Eton College went up from $74,000 to $85,500 within the same timeframe, showing the increased cost of running private schools in the UK.
