Schools giant Cognita to be acquired by Jacobs Holding

Global investment firms Bregal Investments and KKR today announced the signing of a binding agreement for the sale of Cognita, the leading global schools group, to Jacobs Holding of Switzerland.

From one school to 70 in 14 years

Cognita operates over 70 schools across eight countries, educating more than 40,000 children and has over 7,000 teaching and support staff. The organisation was established in 2004 by Bregal with the acquisition of a single school in the UK and expanded successfully into Europe, Asia and Latin America.

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Cognita continued to grow rapidly and in 2013 KKR invested to become a 50 per cent shareholder in the company, giving even greater support to Cognita’s growth across the globe.Since then, through significant additional investment, the company’s growth has accelerated in both Asia and Latin America, with half of the Cognita student population now located there.

Cognita: putting educational quality first

Edmund Lazarus, formerly Managing Partner at Bregal Capital said, “We founded Cognita in 2004 with the late Sir Chris Woodhead, with a single small UK school. He believed that putting educational quality first would give Cognita wings. We are very proud of the extraordinary global success story that Cognita has become. With Jacobs, a long-term investor committed to education, the future for Cognita will be even more exceptional.”Commenting on the acquisition, Patrick De Maeseneire, Chief Executive of Jacobs Holding said, “With this acquisition we are able to invest in education and the development of young people. These themes always played an important role for Klaus Jacobs, our founder, and are at the heart of the Jacobs Foundation, which is the sole economic beneficiary of our investments.”The Jacobs Foundation is a leading charitable organisation that funds research projects in the field of child and youth development.The transaction is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2018, subject to customary regulatory approvals. No financial details of the transaction have been disclosed.Financial advisers on the transaction were Goldman Sachs International and Barclays for Bregal Investments and KKR, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch for Jacobs Holding.For more education and school related news, visit our Education and Schools pages.Access hundreds of global services and suppliers in our Online Directory^{© 2018. This article first appeared in the 2018 edition of the Guide to Education & Schools in the UK, published by Profile Locations, Spray Hill, Hastings Road, Lamberhurst, Kent TN3 8JB. All rights reserved. This publication (or any part thereof) may not be reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of Profile Locations. Profile Locations accepts no liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein.}

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