If you are thinking of buying a private school please contact our firm. We would be pleased to provide you sound advice in connection with the process, advantages, pitfalls, financing, and market for buying a school across North America. We can provide consulting services in connection with presenting your background and defining your acquisition objectives and financial requirements to school sellers. Due to the confidential nature with buying and selling educational institutions, all buyers must contact ABBG first before we share additional information about schools and colleges that we consult with.
We are a value-added advisory that leverages our deep operating expertise and knowledge of education businesses to drive enhanced value for our clients. We work with school and business owners and buyers from across the globe regarding the sale of their educational institution, language school, education-related business, and/or career college. We work with an extensive list of qualified buyers seeking to purchase businesses in variety of markets and school types. These include corporate buyers seeking platforms or add-on acquisitions, high net-worth individuals, private equity firms, and/or other qualified parties interested in acquiring private schools. Additionally, in a select few occasions, ABBG also represents buyers with their search and purchase of a private school. Our firm specializes in private school development services in areas such as Mergers, acquisitions, and sale of established private schools (Preschool, K-12, Language Schools, Career Colleges, education-related businesses. We can find the most suitable buyer(s) for business owners through our extensive and qualified list of buyers. We take the lead regarding the sale of the school -- from valuation to closing the deal. We provide school owners with the highest selling price and best terms possible. Our approach is handled with the strictest of confidentiality and maximum intrusion in the school’s operation. We suggest a market-specific selling price and assess the likelihood of realizing it in your marketplace. We utilize various programs to estimate fair-market value and combine different recognized valuation methods. We also offer fee-based valuations for K-12 Private School and Career School owners seeking valuations for other purposes.
Our School Sales Services Include consulting services include valuation analysis, custom-tailored marketing plans, introduction to pre-screened prospective buyers and investors, analysis of offers, and consulting services throughout the entire process. Our assessment process includes either an onsite visit to your school in order to help ABBG to write up an assessment, or we will seek your assistance in creating an objective assessment for the buyers. The procedures will, of course, differ from country-to-country.
Essential question for any owner of a private school who is considering selling their institution on the open market. The only way to arrive at a reasonable valuation of your school is by talking to experts within the field. We can assess the factors and benchmarks against recent prices achieved for similar schools. There is no simple formula that you can use to value your private school for salel. There are multiple factors that need to be considered when preparing valuation of your school. Many of today's school buyers are international investors, equity firms, and/or school operators looking for safer areas to invest their money or expand their portfolio. Due to the reputation of the educational system, schools are considered safe investment tools for investors. The broad figures for goodwill calculations are somewhere between four to six times a multiple of the net profit plus the commercial value of the freehold property. An market assessment is also important as this will assess your local competition, reputation of the school, recent trends in numbers attending the school, regulatory reports, and supply and demand. The basic answer to the question, "How do I value my school?", is based on a variety of elements, including the sum of fixed assets of the school's business plus a goodwill calculation. On the first element of "fixed assets", this can be attained from your recent set of full accounts. It comprises all of the physical items that your school business owns and includes freehold commercial value of any property that your school owns.
The second element is a goodwill school valuation component that is not as apparent or easy to determine as the fixed asset element to your overall school valuation.There are three methods commonly used to value the goodwill of your school:A multiple of the net profit generated by the school;A multiple of the EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortization), and;A multiple based on gross turnover of the school.There are also a number of other factors to be considered when making a goodwill valuation, including:Local reputation;Outstanding legal claims against the school;Recent regulatory reports;Fluctuations in freehold/leasehold rent negotiations and break periods;Competition;Fluctuations in enrollment;Loyalty and motivation of the staff.The pressures facing small private colleges are part of a larger financial squeeze on almost all kinds of colleges are facing the prospect of having to shut down campuses entirely.Many traditional nonprofit private colleges are struggling for two other reasons: declines in the number of 18-year-olds in certain parts of the country (especially the Northeast and Midwest) and the worsening financial outlook for the middle-class families wanting to send their children to private institutions.The Census Bureau says the total number of college-age Americans (18-24) is expected to decline slightly between now and 2020. In addition, the median income for American families was around $52,000 last year—about 5% less, in real terms, than it was a decade ago.
