
5 Ways to Maximize the Value of Your Vocational School
If you own a vocational school, it’s important to understand the ways you can maximize the value of your school when you sell.
Over the last 12 months, there has been a lot of mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity in the education sector. COVID forced schools to adopt distance learning, which has completely changed the operating model for well-run schools. Schools are now able to deliver high-quality educational outcomes without geographic restrictions or needing to invest in expensive brick and motor classrooms. This has allowed vocational schools to increase revenues while decreasing costs.
Strategic buyers dominated education sector M&A activity in 2020 and early 2021, but private equity groups and sophisticated investors are now seeing vocational schools with distance learning platforms as a new technology-enabled service platform, like EdTech.
If you own a vocational school and are thinking of selling, now may be a good time to explore your options. Unfortunately, many owners miss out on maximizing the value of their schools because they are unfamiliar with what buyers look for. Here are five things you can do to help you ensure you receive top dollar for your vocational school when you decide to sell.
Understand Who the Most Likely Buyers Are for Your School
Buyers of businesses with revenues of $1 million or less tend to be individuals who live within a 50-mile radius of the company they are interested in. However, as the size of your school increases, strategic buyers become more interested —and these buyers are typically not local. For vocational schools with revenues of $5 million and up, financial buyers, like private equity groups, as well as strategic buyers become interested.
What does this mean for you? If you own a vocational school with $1 million or less in revenues, your buyers—besides being local—will likely be first-time business owners, who are essentially looking to buy a job. As a result, your marketing materials and sales pitch should address the concerns these buyers have.
However, owners of larger businesses should be prepared to address the concerns of more sophisticated, financially-driven buyers. That means to maximize your sales price for your school, you will need to develop an offering package, including a pitch book, a financial model, and set up a virtual data room, complete with detailed historical financial statements and other information these buyers will ask for.
Understand the Value of Your Vocational School from a Buyer’s Perspective
Did you know that 80% of privately-owned companies that are listed for sale, don’t sell? The number one reason most schools don’t sell is that the seller has an unrealistic expectation of value.
As a result, one of the most important things you can do before starting the sales process is talk with an M&A advisor who has extensive experience selling vocational schools. They can provide you with an objective, third-party opinion of value using the same methodologies that buyers use. An M&A advisor who is active in the education sector can also give you advice and guidance on pricing trends in the industry and value drivers.
The more educated you are about the M&A market and vocational school valuation principles, the more likely you are to be successful when you sell your vocational school.
Set Personal and Financial Goals
An essential step in ensuring a successful exit is to have a clear idea about how much money you need to meet your financial goals. While this number is not related to the value of your school, it will help you evaluate opportunities and make the right decision.
For example, if you know you need $3 million, after-tax, to retire, and your school is valued at $2 million, it may not make sense to sell now. It may make more sense to spend the next 2-3 years preparing your school for sale so you can increase its value and meet your financial goals. Have an honest conversation with your financial advisor or wealth manager and do some retirement planning to figure out what you need to retire before you decide to sell your school.
Use the Right Process to Maximize the Value of Your School
The best process to use to sell your school depends on its size and market appeal. If your school has less than $2 million in revenue, the best process is the traditional business brokerage approach that includes listing the company on multiple M&A websites and responding to buyers when they request additional information.
However, for companies with over $2 million in revenues, it may make sense to run a controlled auction process. In this case, your M&A advisor will put together a targeted list of financial and strategic buyers that may have an interest in your company.
He will contact them directly and send them with a teaser that provides an overview of your school, but without disclosing its name or other identifying information. If buyers are interested, the broker will have them sign a nondisclosure agreement and send them a formal offering package.
A typical marketing program for a vocational school might involve contacting 100-200 potential buyers simultaneously. The goal here is to get as many buyers as possible looking at your company at the same time and to make them aware they are in a competitive process.
This has several advantages. First, it speeds up the transaction timeline, ensuring a faster and more efficient closing. Second, it ensures buyers put their best offers on the table first because they know other buyers are also bidding. Last, it provides you with negotiating leverage because you will most likely have multiple offers to choose from at the end of the process.
Don’t Take Your Eye Off the Ball, Get Help
Regardless of the size of your vocational school, the most important thing you can do is work with an M&A advisor to run the sales process. Running a sell-side process is time-consuming and you don’t want anything to distract you from the day-to-day operation of your school because a dip in revenues or net income during the sales process can have a big impact on the value of your business.
Selling a vocational school may be the single most important decision in your lifetime, so make sure you work with someone who is an expert in the process and can coach you along the way.
By Rich Jackim, Managing Partner at Jackim Woods & Co.
Jackim Woods & Co. is a leading mergers & acquisitions advisor focused on providing senior-level attention and flawless execution to clients in the education sector nationwide.
Rich Jackim is an experienced mergers and acquisitions advisor and a retired mergers and acquisitions attorney. He has over 20 years of experience advising owners of middle-market companies and their boards of directors on mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. During his career, Rich has been involved in over 70 mergers or acquisitions of middle-market companies worth over $2 billion. Rich is also the author of the critically acclaimed book, The $10 Trillion Opportunity: Designing Successful Exit Strategies for Middle Market Business Owners.
To arrange a free, confidential conversation about your options, please contact Rich Jackim at (224) 513-5142 or rjackim@jackimwoods.com.
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Year-End Checklist for Selling a Business in 2022
If you are thinking of selling your business in 2022 (or even 2025), taking the time now to get prepared and organized, will save time and effort in the future.
Here is a list of 12 things every business owner should review each year:
1) Financials: Every year, try to improve the quality and timeliness of your company’s financial reporting. The year-end is a good time to talk with your CPA about how to clean up your profit and loss statement and balance sheet and eliminate any line items that are no longer relevant. Work with your CPA to document and categorize any one-time expenses or personal expenses, so your CPA and your M&A advisor can help you calculate an accurate adjusted EBITDA for your business.
2) Due Diligence Checklist: Build a relationship with an M&A advisor and ask for an example of a basic due diligence checklist. Have someone in your company assemble as many of the items as possible and store scanned copies in a digital file storage area like Google Drive or Dropbox. This will save you an enormous amount of time and stress, especially if a great buyer suddenly shows up at your door. Work on it a little bit at a time (or delegate it) so it is not overwhelming.
3) Delegate: Think about your business and life goals. Are there things you want to achieve but have not been able to do because you are too busy doing other things? One way to improve the value of your business is to enable it to run without you. As a business owner, your role is to be a strategic planner and visionary. That means you need to delegate as much of your operating responsibilities as possible. Think about what you can delegate in the coming year.
4) M&A Advisor: Check in with an M&A advisor who you trust to discuss market trends, multiples, the pros and cons of your business, and get a valuation done. You should ask your M&A advisor to update your valuation every year so that you can make informed decisions about your options.
5) Sales and Marketing: Step back and consider your company’s overall sales and marketing strategy. If something is not working, try something new. Eliminate programs that aren’t working. Document everything so you can describe the strategy to a potential buyer.
6) Reduce Expenses: Have someone review expenses. Everything from paper costs to insurance premiums. Get new estimates on all major expenses. Every dollar you save goes to the bottom line, which is multiplied by the deal at the time of the sale. So if you can reduce your expenses by $20,000 next year, the value of your business increases between $60,000 and $140,000 depending on the industry you’re in and the size of your business.
7) Website, Social Media: If your website looks like it was made in 1998, it is time to invest in a new one. While we all know not to judge a book by its cover, most new customers and potential buyers judge you based on how your business presents itself online. So make sure your website looks professional, has accurate information, and works. If you have news, blogs, or social media posts, make sure they are up to date.
8) Tax Planning: Check in with your CPA and attorney to explore what you can be doing now to reduce or eliminate any capital gains taxes that will be due when you sell your business. Effective tax planning takes time but can save you a lot of money in the end.
9) Inventory: Make sure your inventory is current. Write off and get rid of any obsolete inventory.
10) Maintenance & Cleaning: Look at your business through a buyer’s eyes. Does anything need to be painted, cleaned, or thrown out? If a buyer called and wanted to meet with you tomorrow, would your business show well? Also, your employees will appreciate working in a clean, well-lit, and positive environment.
11) Financial Planning: Talk with your financial advisor to determine how much you need to net from the sale of your business in order to meet your financial goals. This does not affect the value of your business, but it does
12) Check in with your kids: The holidays are a good time to have an honest and open conversation with your kids about their goals and to see if they would be interested in taking over your business. Don’t wait until you’re ready to sell, to find out your kids always thought they would take over the family business.
It is not possible to address every item on this list at once. But, if you address one or two items a month, it will help improve the value of your company and make selling your business in 2022 much smoother.
Rich Jackim, is the founder of Jackim Woods & Co and the Exit Planning Institute. He’s also the author of The $10 Trillion Opportunity – Designing Success Exit Strategies for Middle Market Businesses.
If you are thinking of selling your business in 2022, contact Rich for a free, confidential, no-obligation consultation to learn about your options.
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Valuations for Title IV Schools and Training Companies at Record Highs
Valuations for vocational schools and training companies are at record highs now. As business performance rebounds, buyers are competing for strong performing businesses. That has led to an increase in the number of education-related businesses that were sold in Q3 of 2021. The number of education deals that closed in the third quarter increased 17% over the previous quarter, and 11% from the same quarter in 2020, according to Jackim Woods & Co, which tracks and analyzes vocational school and training company sale transactions.
2021 Education Industry Seller Confidence Index
Valuations for vocational schools and training companies are at record highs now because seller confidence is up. As the economy rebounds, owners of vocational schools and training companies are returning to the market, feeling more confident they can sell their schools and training companies for a good price and less willing to wait until the COVID pandemic is over. Seller confidence increased to 57 out of 70; that’s up from 45 in 2020. This is the highest seller confidence level since the high of 58 in 2018. Today 49% of the respondents believe they can receive a higher sale price for their school or training company today compared to a year ago, and 46% of respondents said the top factor motivating their confidence was an improvement in enrollment and revenue.
The average revenue for vocational schools and training businesses that were sold in the third quarter was $755,000, up 6% from the same time last year. Meanwhile, buyers of education-related businesses, especially Title IV schools, are paying record-high prices for businesses that performed well during the pandemic. The average sale price in the third quarter hit a new high of $1,780,000; that’s 17% higher than the previous year and 40% above pre-pandemic levels.
With current valuations above where they were pre-pandemic, many school owners are thinking now may be the right time to exit.
2021 Education Industry Buyer Confidence Index
Valuations for vocational schools and training companies are also at record highs because buyer confidence is up. Buyers noted that there is a limited supply of profitable well-run schools and training businesses on the market. In addition, several buyers noted that because of the shift to online learning, schools will be able to expand their geographic reach while reducing the cost of delivering educational services. The combination of these two factors signals significant growth opportunities and higher margins for well-run schools and training companies in the future. As a result, buyer confidence increased to 60, up significantly from 48 in 2020 and only slightly above the buyer confidence level of 59 in 2018.
It is interesting to note that demand for high-performing vocational schools and training businesses is increasing. According to Rich Jackim, Managing Partner of Jackim Woods & Co., “buyer inquiries on our education-related listings are up 39% since the same time last year. However, many business owners are putting off selling until their schools or training companies have fully recovered, so the supply of profitable, well-run schools is still limited. This is driving up values and makes it a sellers’ market.”
If you are beginning to think about selling your training business or Title IV vocational school and would like to explore your options, please contact Rich Jackim at rjackim@jackimwoods.com for a FREE, confidential, no-obligation consultation.
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Business Valuations at Record Highs in Q3 2021
As business performance rebounds, buyers are competing for strong performing businesses. That has led to an increase in the number of businesses that were acquired in Q3 of 2021. The number of closed transactions in the third quarter increased 17% over the previous quarter, and 11% from the same quarter in 2020, according to BizBuySell’s Insight Report, which tracks and analyzes U.S. business sale transactions. The report also includes an analysis of survey responses from over 2,000 business owners, business buyers, and business brokers.
2021 Seller Confidence Index
As the economy rebounds, sellers are returning to the market, feeling more confident they can sell their businesses for a good price and less willing to wait until the COVID pandemic is over. Seller confidence increased to 57 out of 70, up from 45 in 2020. This is the highest seller confidence level since the high of 58 in 2018. 49% of the respondents believe they can receive a higher sale price today compared to a year ago, and 46% of respondents said the top factor motivating their confidence was improved sales or revenue.
The average revenue for businesses sold in the third quarter was $671,000, up 6% from the same time last year. Meanwhile, buyers are paying record-high prices for businesses that have continued to perform well during the pandemic. The average sale price in the third quarter hit a new high of $350,000; that’s 17% above the previous year and 40% above pre-pandemic levels.
With current business valuations higher than they were pre-pandemic, many business owners are thinking now may be the right time to exit.
2021 Buyer Confidence Index
Buyers noted that there is a limited supply of profitable well-run businesses on the market and they regret missing out on buying last year while prices were lower. As a result, buyer confidence fell to 48 out of 70, down significantly from 60 in 2020 and slightly above the buyer confidence level of 47 in 2018.
It is interesting to note that demand for high-performing businesses is increasing. According to Rich Jackim, Managing Partner of Jackim Woods & Co., “buyer inquiries on our listings are up 33% since the same time last year. However, many business owners are putting off selling until their businesses fully recover, so the supply of profitable, well-run businesses is still limited. This is driving up values and makes it a sellers’ market.”
If you are beginning to think about selling your business and would like to explore your options, please contact Rich Jackim at rjackim@jackimwoods.com for a FREE, confidential, no-obligation consultation.
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Sellers Command Record Prices, Seller Confidence Grows as Buyers Compete for Deals
The number of businesses that were acquired continued to rebound with the number of closed transactions in the third quarter up 17% over the previous quarter and up over 11% year-over-year. That’s according to BizBuySell’s Q3 Insight Report, which tracks and analyzes U.S. business-for-sale transactions.
Sellers are returning to the market, feeling more confident they can receive a good price and less willing to wait as the effects of the COVID pandemic linger on, including supply chain disruptions and staffing shortages.
Seller confidence index increased to 57 in 2021, up from 45 in 2020, which is the highest mark since the high of 58 in 2018. Of those surveyed, 49% of business owners felt they could receive a higher sale price today compared to a year ago, and 46% said the top factor that influenced their decision to sell was improved sales and revenue.
“The number of active sellers in the market is still lower than in previous years, but we have definitely seen an uptick in new clients since 2020. The shortage of good companies for sale, combined with low interest rates and a stock market at all-time highs has driven up the value of the companies that are currently for sale,” said Richard Jackim, Managing Partner of Jackim Woods & Co.

Number of Acquisitions in Education Sector Soars in 2021
The total value of mergers and acquisitions in the education sector increased by more than 50% from the second half of 2020 to the second half of 2021, as companies across the industry rushed to add education-related companies to their portfolios, according to a report by mergers and acquisitions advisory firm, Jackim Woods & Co.
Jackim Woods & Co. is a mergers and acquisitions firm that provides advice and financial consulting to middle-market companies in the education sector.
The overall number of individual M&A transactions also rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.
Buyers of education companies closed 210 mergers in the first half of 2020, and 240 acquisitions during the first six months of 2021.
The total value of acquisitions in the education sector between January and June was $19.4 billion, largely driven by Platinum Equity’s $6.4-billion acquisition of McGraw Hill, the report noted.
The market value of deals closed during the first half of 2021 had almost as much market value as all the deals closed during all of 2020.
Private equity-sponsored transactions accounted for 40% of deals during the first six months of 2021. That’s 8% higher than the average number of private equity-backed deals for the last three years.
According to Jackim Woods & Co, 97 of the 240 deals during this time frame were sponsored or financed by financial investors like private equity, venture capital, or other investment firms. That’s the highest number in three years and a 130% increase over the first half of 2020.
Twelve deals during the first half of 2020 had purchase prices of more than $100 million, and at least seven of those involved the K-12 sector. About 33% of the deals had purchase prices of between $4.5 million and $54.6 million.
The K-12 EdTeh segment surpassed the professional training services sector as the education industry’s most active market segment in the first half of 2021.
Approximately 50 deals involved the acquisition of professional training companies in the second half of 2019 and about 45 deals covered professional training services in the first half of 2021. There were approximately 40 deals in the K-12 EdTech segment in the second half of 2020, while nearly 60 deals closed in that segment in the first half of 2021.
For other segments of the education sector, the analysis showed a mixed picture of market activity for the first six months of this year compared to the second half of 2020.
The number of deals in the childcare services and higher-education EdTech segments increased during this period, but the number of deals in professional training technology, higher-ed institutions (including Title IV vocational schools), and K-20 services decreased. Deals involving for-profit K-12 schools remained stable.
According to Rich Jackim, Managing Partner of Jackim Woods & Co, “we are seeing strong demand for Title IV vocational schools that prepare students for careers in the healthcare professions. We’re also seeing strong demand for non-Title IV schools, like commercial driving schools and cybersecurity and programming schools. Valuations for these schools have increased significantly over the last 24 months.”
In addition to the McGraw Hill acquisition, the most interesting education sector deals in the first half of 2021 included
- Byju’s $900 million acquisition of Indian tutoring company Aakash Educational Services
- Renaissance’s $650 million acquisition of Nearpod
- Kahoot’s $435 million acquisition of K-12 secure-sign-on provider Clever
If you own an education-related business, including a Title IV college or vocational school, a k-12 proprietary school, or an EdTech company and are beginning to think about selling, we would be delighted to speak with you and help you explore your options.
Contact Rich Jackim, Managing Partner of Jackim Woods & Co at 224-513-5142 or rjackim@jackimwoods.com.
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SBA Payment Forgiveness Expected to Fuel Acquisitions in 2021
As was the case last year, COVID-related federal stimulus benefits are expected to be a powerful catalyst driving deal activity in 2021.
On December 27, 2020, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, a $2.3 trillion stimulus bill, with $900 billion targeted specifically for COVID-19 relief. A portion of these funds will be used to extend the popular 2020 CARES Act SBA Debt Relief program.
According to Rich Jackim, Managing Partner of Jackim Woods & Co, the extension includes significant benefits that provide buyers with powerful incentives to acquire a business in 2021, including:
- Six months of payment forgiveness for SBA 7(a) loans closed after February 1, 2021, and before September 30th, 2021. This includes principal and interest up to a maximum of $9,000 per month. That’s a $54,000 benefit to buyers.
- The SBA will waive the guaranty fee that must be paid by borrowers. This fee is typically around 3% of the loan amount and will now be zero for loans closed before September 30th, 2021. That’s an average saving to buyers of approximately $4,500.
- The SBA is increasing the amount of loan guarantees to lenders from 75% to 90%. This will decrease the risk to lenders and help ensure liquidity for deal financing.
Jackim urges buyers who want to take advantage of the extension to learn from the mad rush to meet last year’s deadline. It required tremendous coordination between sellers, buyers, counsel, intermediaries, and lenders. “The lesson buyers learned last year is not to procrastinate and try to close at least 30 days before the deadline to accommodate potential delays,” says Jackim.
What does this mean for sellers? If you are thinking of selling your business, now may be the right time despite the pandemic. In addition to record low interest rates, the SBA Payment Forgiveness Program provides buyers with extremely low financing costs. Last year we sold two businesses for over asking price because the buyers were able to afford to pay more due to the 2020 SBA Payment Forgiveness Program. Once the pandemic is under control, it is unlikely buyers will have access to the same generous funding they have today.
To learn more about taking advantage of the 2021 SBA Payment Forgiveness Program contact Rich Jackim at 224-513-5142 or at rjackim@jackimwoods.com.
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Exiting Planning: The Key to a Successful Exit
Selling a business isn’t always about the price. It is not like selling a house where the most important factor is finding a buyer who is willing to make the highest offer. In fact, in my 25- years of being a business broker, I’d say that in roughly 20% of the deals, the purchase price was not the most important part of the deal. In the end, sellers are focused on achieving a combination of things, and maximizing the purchase price is only one of them.
Let’s examine some of the other most common goals and objectives sellers have.
- Maintaining the seller’s legacy. For one client, this means getting the buyer to agree to keep the company’s name (which was also the seller’s name) the same after the acquisition and not roll the company into the buyer’s parent company.
- Protecting Employees. For another client, they were the biggest employer in their small town, and the seller wanted to be sure that the buyer would not close down the plant, fire all the employees, and consolidate operations into their plant about 100 miles away.
- Participating in the Upside. Many clients want to remain involved in some fashion (usually in a passive or silent role) with their business after the sale. This often means accepting a lower price at closing but sharing in the company’s future growth going forward. This can be structured in several different ways, including a minority equity interest, a royalty on sales, or an earnout.
- Timing. Several of my former clients had very specific timing goals. In one case, it was due to the owner’s declining health; in another case, the owner’s son and key employee became disabled. In both cases, the owners wanted to sell as quickly as possible before the business suffered, and its value was diminished.
The best way to ensure that you achieve your goals when selling your business is to develop a comprehensive exit strategy before you start the sales process. This assures that everyone on your team is on the same page and is rowing in the same direction.
Rich Jackim, the Managing Partner at Jackim Woods & Co, is the author of the best-selling book, “The $10 Trillion Opportunity: Designing Successful Exit Strategies for Middle Market Business Owners”. He has advised over 200 clients to create their exit plans and helped over 100 clients sell their businesses for a combined value of over $500 million. The book’s success led Rich to create the Exit Planning Institute and created the Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) program. He has trained over 300 lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, consultants, and business brokers to develop exit plans for their clients.
If you are thinking of selling your business in 2021 or beyond, contact Rich Jackim at 224-513-5142 or rjackim@jackimwoods.com for a FREE, confidential, no-obligation discussion about your options.
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The M&A Market Is Back. Buyers Are Targeting These Industries.
M&A deal activity has recovered from its 9-month pandemic-related dip. Based on the overall strength of the stock market, we expect continued strong mergers and acquisitions activity for 2021 as well.
The total dollar value of mergers and acquisitions announced in the U.S. fell to roughly $20 billion in March as the pandemic set in, according to data from Barrons. That was a sharp drop-off—from about $180 billion in January. Yet the recovery has been equally sharp. Deal volumes reached approximately $205 billion in October according to Barron’s data.
Looking forward, Rich Jackim, managing partner at Jackim Woods & Company said, “low-interest rates, optimism about a COVID vaccine, record-breaking fundraising by Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), and even a less contentious global trade policy will all contribute to continued strong M&A activity in 2021.”
Interest rates are currently at historic lows, reducing the cost of funding acquisitions. In addition, the good news about several COVID vaccines provides a light at the end of the tunnel and the assurance that buyers need to make a purchase.
And SPACS—special purpose acquisition corporations that raise money through an initial public offering in order to buy other companies—have raised more than $64 billion this year. SPACs raised just $13 billion in all of 2019, suggesting that SPACs will be the new driver of middle-market M&A activity in 2021.
“The M&A wave is regaining momentum and should continue for the next 12-18 months,” Jackim says. He believes the following industries will see an uptick in M&A activity in 2021.
2021 will be a year of recovery as retail and restaurant workers displaced by COVID-related closures seek other careers and gainful employment. As a result, Jackim believes the vocational/technical training and education sector will of interest to buyers and investors. The US has been suffering from a shortage of skilled workers for over a decade, so there are plenty of high paying jobs available for people with the right skills. Enrollment in vocational programs tends to rise as unemployment rises, so we expect 2021 to build on the strong results that the technical education industry saw in 2020, and to attract renewed interest from both financial and strategic buyers and investors.
The energy industry is another industry where we expect to see a lot of M&A activity in 2021. The price of crude oil has dropped to just above $40 a barrel since early summer, nowhere near the $63 a barrel price at the beginning of the year. At the same time, the rise of clean energy and potential regulation are threatening companies that focus on traditional fossil fuels. As the fossil fuel industry shifts toward a lower-growth model, exploration and production companies will be looking to generate returns through acquisitions that would yield economies of scale and other benefits, or diversify their product or service offerings away from fossil fuels.

Education Industry Acquisitions Decrease in 2020 Due to COVID Concerns
Fueled by a multi-billion-dollar deal, the value of mergers and acquisitions in the education sector increased by more than 80% in the first half of 2020, even though the number of transactions dropped to a 30-month low, a new report by Jackim Woods & Co finds.
Overall, the market value of deals in the education sector increased from $4.9 billion in the first half of 2019 to $9 billion during the same period in 2020, according to research by the mergers and acquisitions firm, Jackim Woods & Co.
Jackim Woods & Co is an investment banking firm that provides advice and financial consulting to middle-market companies in the education sector.
Their analysis tracked 1,128 education sector deals between 2018 and June 2020.
Sixty-six percent of that total came from Blackstone’s $6 billion acquisition of student housing company iQ Student Accommodation, which has been described as the largest-ever private real estate deal in the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, overall dealmaking activity in the education sector slowed significantly due to COVID-19 shutdowns and concerns about the long-term impact it would have on the sector. Jackim Woods & Co tracked 207 mergers and acquisitions in the education sector during the first six months of the year, down from 242 during the same period last year.
That figure also represents the fewest number of total deals for a six-month stretch since at least the beginning of 2018, the period covered in the report by Jackim Woods & Co.
The overall dip in the number of mergers and acquisitions during the first half of 2020 was due to a steep decline in private equity sponsored deals. According to Rich Jackim, Managing Partner at Jackim Woods & Co, only 41 of the 207 deals closed during the first six months of 2020 were financed by private equity firms or other financial investors. That’s the lowest number of deals closed in the 30-month period the report covered and a 50% decrease compared to the same period in 2019.
Only seven deals in the first six months of 2020 were valued at more than $100 million, and at least two were in the K-12 sector. About 33% of the total transactions had values in the range of $4.5 million to $54.6 million.
The sector of the education industry that saw the most activity in the first half of 2020 was the professional training services category, which rose from 44 to 60 transactions. That accounted for nearly 30% of all deals during the first six months and marked the most transactions closed for the sector since 2018.
Activity in almost every other segment of the education industry tracked by Jackim Woods & Co — aside from the professional training sector — was down compared to the first half of 2019, according to the report. That includes sectors specific to K-12 institutions and the K-12 EdTech space, which includes companies that provide media and software used in schools.
The most interesting K-12 deals during 2020 include
• China Maple Leaf Education System’s $487 million acquisition of Singapore’s Canadian International School;
• K12 Inc.’s $165 million acquisition of Galvanize, a Denver-based company that offers coding boot camp programs; and
• Chegg’s $96 million acquisition of the math problem-solving app Mathway.
If you own an education-related business, including a Title IV vocational school, K-12 school, or EdTech company, and are thinking about selling, we would be delighted to speak with you and help you explore your options.
Contact Rich Jackim, Managing Partner of Jackim Woods & Co at 224-513-5142 or at rjackim@jackimwoods.com.
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