DBAG sells Schülerhilfe to Oakley

Oscar Geen
16 May 2017

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Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) has sold German tutoring service ZGS Verwaltungs, known as Schülerhilfe, to Oakley Capital Investments.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but Oakley expects to commit approximately €42m to the equity investment through its Fund III.

The sale by DBAG from its fourth fund contribute €9m to DBAG's latest financial year's income and is the fourth divestment DBAG has made in 2017, following three exits from DBAG Fund V. The company's management will also divest their holdings.

Under DBAG's stewardship, Schülerhilfe launched online services and an e-learning platform. It also added offerings for adult learning. Revenues grew from €48m to €63m between 2013 and 2016.

Oakley was attracted to this sector due to growing non-cyclical demand for these types of services from parents of children subject to annual examinations.

Previous funding
In September 2009, Paragon Partners acquired a majority stake in Schülerhilfe from Sylvan Learning Group for an undisclosed amount. A consortium comprising WestLB, Sparkasse Essen and Sparkasse Gelsenkirchen provided senior loans representing 50% of the total funding. Syntegra Capital then took a minority stake in October the same year.

DBAG acquired the company from Paragon and Syntegra in October 2013, taking 75% of the equity, using capital from DBAG Fund VI and €9.8m from its balance sheet. The company's management took the remaining 25%.

Company
Founded in 1974, Schülerhilfe provides teaching and tutoring services to students. The company is headquartered in Gelsenkirchen and has 460 of its own agencies and 600 franchised learning centres in Germany and Austria. It has 430 employees and helps 125,000 students per year. In 2016, the company generated revenues of €63.3m and an EBITDA of €16.6m.

People
Oakley Capital Investments – Peter Dubens (director).
Deutsche Beteiligungs AG – Torsten Grede (board spokesperson).
ZGS Verwaltungs – Dieter Werkhausen (CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Liberum Capital, Steve Pearce (corporate finance); Goerg, Oliver von Rosenberg (legal).
Vendor – EY, Tobias Hartung (financial due diligence); Helmut Mendel (tax); Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, Michael Bernhardt, Leopold Riedl (legal); RW Baird, Sven Harmsen (corporate finance).
Company – McDermott Will & Emery, Kian Tauser (legal).