In our favourite example of pass the financial parcel so far, Barings Private Equity and CITIC Capital have announced the sale of Wall Street English China at “a deep discount” to none other than Luigi Peccenini, the 80-year-old founder of the blended learning language provider.
The Italian entrepreneur opened the first Wall Street Institute, as the schools were then known, in Milan in 1972, expanding into Spain in the mid-80s. In 1997, the Italian and his Swiss partner sold the company to Sylvan Learning in the US. Peccinini himself moved to China, where he started a Wall Street operation in 2000.
In 2005, the international chain was bought by the Carlyle Group, a US asset management group, who also bought Peccinini’s China operation. Pearson acquired the language school chain in 2010 for a reported US$100 million, selling on to private equity in November 2017 for around US $300 million.
Just over 3 years later, hit by the crippling impact of Covid-19 on the language training industry, Barings has sold the China operation back to Peccinini for an undisclosed sum. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-asia-privateequity-idUSKCN25E0HE
“Do the Wall Street shuffle,” as 10CC sang way back in 1974, and “hear the money rustle.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foT1ITubs1A
