Apollo Education to be taken private in $1.1 billion deal: Reuters

For-profit education provider Apollo Education Group Inc (APOL.O), the owner of the University of Phoenix, said on Monday it would be taken private by a consortium in a deal valued at $1.1 billion.

The offer price of $9.50 per share is a 36.7 percent premium to Apollo stock’s Friday’s close.

Apollo Education’s shares rose to $8.98 in premarket trading. The company had a market value of $754.4 million as of Friday’s close.

Apollo Education’s shares last traded at $9.50 on Oct. 22.

The consortium includes the Vistria Group LLC funds affiliated with Apollo Global Management LLC (APO.N) and private investment firm Najafi Companies.

Apollo Education said in January it was considering selling itself after years of declining student enrollments.

Apollo Education and rivals such as DeVry Education Group Inc (DV.N) and ITT Educational Services (ESI.N) have faced tougher regulation since a series of government investigations in 2010 revealed low graduation rates and poor job prospects for graduates, who were also burdened with high student debt.

Barclays, Credit Suisse and Evercore acted as financial advisers to Apollo Education, while Sullivan & Cromwell LLP served as its legal adviser. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP was the legal adviser to the consortium.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Don Sebastian)

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