Pret A Manger’s owner to buy adventure holiday company
INSPIRING LEARNING – the company behind educational adventure trips for thousands of British schoolchildren – is on the verge of being sold to the owner of Pret A Manger.
Private equity group Bridgepoint has been selected as the favoured bidder for the company. It had been vying against a mystery Chinese bidder in the final stages of the sale.
Inspiring Learning is owned by two US investment funds – Apriori Capital and Ares Management – which hired bankers to find a buyer for the company earlier this year.
It is thought the owners are hoping to get about £100million for Inspiring Learning, whose three brands are Kingswood, Camp Beaumont and Equity.
Apriori Capital bought Inspiring Learning – at the time called Education and Adventure Travel Group – from British buy- out firm Bowmark Capital for £100million in 2008 just before the financial crisis hit.
Inspiring Learning, founded in 1933 as Schools Travel Service, provides educational adventure trips and last year worked with 210,000 pupils and teachers.
It operates in partnership with University College London, the Government’s official provider of the educational First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme.
Bridgepoint, whose portfolio includes retailers Fatface and Wiggle, declined to comment.