Leeds Equity Partners Acquires INTO University Partnerships Stake

New York-based private equity fund Leeds Equity Partners has signed and closed a 66 million pounds ($105.8 million) investment in INTO University Partnerships Limited in return for a 25 percent equity stake. Founded in 2005 by Andrew Colin and based in Brighton, United Kingdom, INTO partners with premier universities around the world to increase student capacity, drive additional revenue and support greater international student mobility. Since 2005, INTO has developed 16 university partnerships in the United Kingdom, United States and Asia.

PRESS RELEASE

Leeds Equity Partners, LLC, the New York-based private equity fund focused exclusively on investing in the Knowledge Industries, announced today that it has signed and closed a £66M investment in INTO University Partnerships Limited (“INTO”) in return for a 25% equity stake.
Founded in 2005 by Andrew Colin and based in Brighton, United Kingdom, INTO is a leader in partnering with premier universities around the world to increase student capacity, drive additional revenue and support greater international student mobility. Since 2005, INTO has developed 16 university partnerships in the United Kingdom, United States and Asia. All of INTO’s partnerships share the common theme of forming long-term relationships with high quality universities in order to attract talented students from international markets outside the universities’ traditional target geographic areas. Current partners include the University of Exeter, Newcastle University, Oregon State University, Colorado State University, the University of South Florida and Nankai University.
“We are delighted to invest in INTO,” said Jeffrey T. Leeds, President and Co-Founder of Leeds Equity Partners. “Andrew Colin, John Sykes and Steven Smale, INTO’s founder directors, have built a successful, impactful business because they understand the complexities of the higher education marketplace as well as the needs of students. We look forward to helping them to continue to build an industry-leading, relationship-driven model that helps universities meet their increasingly complex challenges.”
INTO’s founder and Chairman, Andrew Colin said, “We are thrilled to welcome Leeds Equity as our investor and partner and appreciate this strong vote of confidence in both our team and business model. There is a powerful cultural fit between our two organizations. Throughout our discussions I was particularly impressed with their commitment to our vision. We look forward to leveraging their expertise, strategic insight and resources as we continue to innovate and grow.”

“In an era of soaring demand and declining public funding, INTO, working with its global network of world-class universities, is a strategic enabler,” said Carter Harned, Managing Director at Leeds Equity Partners. “INTO’s transformational model, supported by private sector investment, has already demonstrated its impact to major public universities on both sides of the Atlantic. This investment will support those endeavors and, through this model, continue to deliver exceptional experiences and outcomes to students and innovative capacity building solutions to great universities around the world.”

About Leeds Equity Partners:

Leeds Equity Partners, LLC, is a New York-based private equity firm focused exclusively on investing in the education, training and information services industries (the “Knowledge Industries”). The firm was founded by Jeffrey T. Leeds and Robert A. Bernstein in 1993 and has raised and managed more than $1.1 billion of capital across five funds.
The Board of Advisors of Leeds Equity Partners includes, among others: Chairman General Colin L. Powell, former Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Dr. Barry A. Munitz, former Chancellor of the California State University school system and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust; Thomas F. (“Mack”) McLarty III, President of McLarty Associates and former White House Chief of Staff under President William J. Clinton; Dr. Rod R. Paige, former Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush; Richard W. Riley, former Secretary of Education under President William J. Clinton and two-term Governor of South Carolina; Tim J. Fitzpatrick, the former CEO of Sallie Mae Corporation; and Timothy P. Shriver, Chairman of the Board of the Special Olympics.

About INTO University Partnerships:

INTO University Partnerships specializes in large-scale transformational partnerships that support and drive leading universities’ internationalization goals. Within university-led partnerships, INTO expands opportunities for students to pursue higher education by investing in the resources, systems and processes to deliver a first-class student experience.
The company has over 1,400 staff working on INTO projects and generates annual revenues of £160m. The company estimates that more than 50,000 students will have enrolled at INTO centres by the end of the 2012-13 financial year. The investment value of its infrastructure projects currently exceeds £200m. Projections see the company more than doubling in size over the next 5 years.

INTO’s partnership model provides investment and access to resources beyond the scope and capacity of individual universities. Students benefit from university-designed and delivered programs, highly supportive learning environments and state-of-the-art learning and living spaces while enjoying full access to their host university’s campus facilities, resources and services. The company currently operates a student recruitment network with 31 offices in 17 countries.
For investors, INTO provides access to the fast growing international higher education market, in a highly diversified portfolio of leading higher education brands.