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Deal Maker of the Year Awards 2013
WINNER - MATTHEW ROBB DEAL: August Equity investes in Minerva Education
NAME: Matthew Robb COMPANY: The Parthenon Group TEL: +44 (207) 201-0475 EMAIL: mrobb@parthenon.com
DEAL OVERVIEW
Parthenon was August Equity’s commercial advisor in the acquisition of Eaton Square and other schools as part of the Minerva school chain. This chain represents the newest premium school chain in the UK, and is an excellent platform for further domestic and international growth. We deployed our proprietary micro-market methodology to assess the growth potential of the schools, adapting it for each asset as appropriate. For example, for Eaton Square, the catchment is the ultra-wealthy family in Chelsea, the population of which is more related to London as an international centre rather than the domestic economy. In Hawley Place, the school competes with other top tier schools in the domestic market. We continue to support August in their buy-and-build strategy for Minerva and wish them every success for 2014.
Parthenon was involved in almost every transaction in the education sector in 2013. We supported on buy and/or sell side on the largest transactions globally: Cognita (KKR), TSL (TPG), Cambridge Education Group (TBC) and some of the most interesting smaller businesses in the UK and Europe such as Itslearning and The Key.
Beyond Education, Parthenon supported
key transactions in the consumer markets in London, especially in the Food and Beverage industry. These included: Tyrell’s Crisps, Fever Tree, Burtons Biscuits, Whitworths, and D&D Restaurants.
BIO
Mr. Robb joined Parthenon in autumn 2010, having worked in both public and private sectors within education following a career at McKinsey & Co where he led strategy and organisation work in a wide range of contexts, from highly successful FTSE 30 companies and mid-caps to public sector institutions and government departments.
For seven years, Mr. Robb worked in the education support services sector including holding P&L responsibility. He led teams working on school improvement (National Challenge), academy development, the ‘building schools for the future’ programme and on Children’s Services technology and management information.
Since joining Parthenon, Mr. Robb has led our education work in London. His primary focus has been on post-secondary education, where he has led corporate strategy projects in educational technology and higher education focussing on domestic and international growth. He has also led diligence work in post-secondary education in the UK and Germany.
In K-12 and related support services, Mr Robb has led public-sector work on secondary reform in the Middle East, and developed strategy projects for international growth.
Mr. Robb holds a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and was the Gatsby Scholar.
In 2014, we expect to see more activity in the education sector. This will be driven by a number of factors: continued marketization of HE, the move towards greater influence for employers in the vocational skills space and the ever-growing role of digital technology.