A British private schools firm set up by a controversial former Ofsted head has been sold to a Swiss investment business for £2 billion, as it seeks to continue its rapid growth.
Cognita, which runs more than 70 schools around the world, is being sold by Jersey-based owners Bregal Investments and US investment firm KKR to rival Jacobs Holding.
The Milton Keynes-based schools business, which educates more than 40,000 children in eight countries, said the deal would allow it to “further [its] international expansion”.
Sir Chris Woodhead, the former head of schools inspectorate Ofsted, founded the firm with a single school, Quinton House in Northampton, in 2004.
The firm now includes 40 schools in the UK, including the Southbank International School in London. It also operates schools in Spain, Brazil, Chile, as well as the Stamford American School in Hong Kong.
Jacobs Holding, a Zurich-based family investment business, said it expected to complete the deal in the final quarter of 2018.
Patrick De Maeseneire, the company’s chief executive, said: “It has always been the aim of Jacobs Holding and the Jacobs Family to create global leaders in attractive markets, and therefore we are keen to support Cognita in its further international expansion.”
Cognita is led by Chris Jansen, a former chief executive of the AA, who has also held senior roles at British Airways and Procter and Gamble.
The Cognita chief executive said the change of ownership signalled that the firm was “entering a new and exciting phase”.
Sir Chris, who died in 2015, was head of Ofsted for six years until 2000, during which time he was a supporter of grammar schools and traditional teaching methods, and had spoken out against what he saw as “trendy” new forms of education.
He started the business 14 years ago with Bregal, and saw KKR take a 50 per cent stake in the firm in 2013.
Jacobs Holding is an investment firm that focuses on charitable causes and the development of young people. It was founded in 1994 by German-born billionaire Klaus Jacobs, who died in 2008.
The Jacobs family controls Barry Callebaut, which Klaus Jacobs also founded; the Zurich-based firm is the world’s biggest cocoa manufacturer and produces chocolate for consumer giants Nestle and Mondelez, among others.
