CVC buys online universities Pegaso and Mercatorum

Unquote understands that the deal gives the company an enterprise value of €500-750m, which equates to 10-15x its 2018 EBITDA of €50m.

The vendor is the company's founder, Danilo Iervolino, who will retain the remaining 50% and will stay on with the business as chair and CEO.

The GP deployed capital from its CVC Capital Partners VII fund, which held a final close on its €15.5bn hard-cap in June 2017. The vehicle deploys equity tickets of €100m-1bn, with a sweet spot of €300-500m, in companies with enterprise values of €500m-5bn.

The acquisition of Pegaso further strengthens CVC's position in the education market in southern Europe, following its recent investment in Spain's private university Alfonso X el Sabio (UAX) completed by CVC Fund VII in March 2019.

Company
Multiversity is a holding company that owns online universities Pegaso and Mercatorum. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Naples, Pegaso offers courses – including bachelor and master degrees, post-graduate masters and single courses – to around 80,000 undergraduate and post-graduate students across more than 70 exam venues. The business generates EBITDA of around €50m from revenues of approximately €100m.

People
CVC Capital Partners – Andrea Ferrante (managing director).
Multiversity – Danilo Iervolino (founder, CEO, chair).

Advisers
Equity – Legance (legal); Bain & Co (corporate finance); PwC (financial due diligence); Facchini Rossi e Michelutti (tax).
Company – Studio Bifolco & Associati (tax); EY (corporate finance); Gianni Origoni Grippo Cappelli & Partners (legal).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• Southern Europe
• Consumer
• CVC Capital Partners
• Italy
• PwC
• EY (Ernst & Young)