IFC Backs Baring’s Indian School Network

Kosmo Kalliarekos, former head of the Parthenon education consulting practice, is quietly making a mark on global education. A few years ago Kosmo moved from Boston to Hong Kong to join his college roommate at Baring Private Equity.  His first acquisition was Nord Anglia, a chain of international high schools stretching from eastern europe to China. This year they acquired a big stake in Chinese Ambow Education. Today they announced an interesting deal with the World Bank to build a network of schools in India. View the release below:

International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group, proposes to provide a loan of up to SGD 25 million (Rs 98.1 crore or $20 million) to support Global Indian International School (GIIS).
GIIS was founded in 2002 by LM Singhvi, CS Dharmadhikari and Atul Temurnikar. Its key shareholders include Global Schools Foundation Ltd (Singapore), K12 Eduschools Holding Ltd and a fund of Baring Private Equity Asia.
The proposed investment by IFC will support the greenfield expansion of GIIS in India, as well as the acquisition and expansion of schools in Indonesia and Vietnam. The expansion in India is planned in cities like Noida and Surat, among others. GIIS is also planning to expand in South-east Asia (Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City).
“IFC’s financing will help the company achieve a more balanced capital structure with moderate leverage. We will also act as a long-term partner to GIIS and provide access to a global education network,” IFC said on the proposed investment.
GIIS is part of a network of international schools which provides education to over 21,000 students in 21 schools across countries like Singapore, the USA, Malaysia, New Zealand, Japan, the UAE, Thailand, Vietnam and India.
The curricula offered include international baccalaureate diploma programme, international level secondary education and the global Montessori-plus programme.