Education · Realised
Foundation Early Learning
Buy-and-build of early learning centres around Australia.
At a glance
Sector
Education
Invested
July 2014
Realised
June 2018
Status
Realised
Acquired by
Busy Bees
The headline
32
Early learning centres
4yrs
Held, 2014 to 2018
39%
Fall in comparable listed peers over the hold
Background.
- A national portfolio of thirty-two early learning centres across Australia.
- The Fortitude team invested in July 2014 and again in December 2014.
- All investment proceeds went into growth in the business.
Our investment thesis.
- Strong tailwinds driven by rising workforce participation, backed by bipartisan government funding.
- A highly fragmented industry with significant acquisition opportunities.
- An established centre management business with a track record of improving the centres it managed.
Our results.
- Fortitude helped Foundation Early Learning acquire all thirty-two centres and build out a platform function.
- The business outperformed its listed peers: the average share price of comparable listed companies fell thirty-nine per cent over our hold period.
- The business was sold to Busy Bees as their Australian entry platform in June 2018.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance, and figures drawn from individual deals executed on a deal-by-deal basis are not representative of a pooled fund. Wholesale investors can request the full record.
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