The Wall Street English website is still advertising teaching jobs in China, despite the fact that owners Barings Private Equity and CITIC announced the sale of the China operation to Luigi Peccinini, the 80-year-old founder of the blended learning language provider, at the beginning of The Italian entrepreneur opened the first Wall Street school in Milan in 1972, expanding into Spain in the mid-80s. In 1997, he sold the company to Sylvan Learning in the US, while Peccinini moved to China, where he started a Wall Street operation in 2000.
In 2005, the schools were bought by the Carlyle Group, a US asset management firm, who sold them on to Pearson in 2010 for a reported US$100 million, selling on to private equity in November 2017 for around US$300 million.
On 20 November 2017, the group was acquired by Barings for around US$300 million. Hit by the crippling impact of Covid-19 on the language training industry, Barings sold the China operation back to Peccinini, reportedly at a deep discount.
Reports suggest that local Wall Street schools took a hit when China locked down, with teachers complaining of salary cuts. With the Chinese schools back open, and Peccenini back in charge, things look set to change, and the search for teachers is on.
