Affinity Education sold to Quadrant Private Equity in $650m deal

Affinity Education has been sold to Sydney based Quadrant Private Equity in a deal that is understood to have totalled around $650 million, the Australian Financial Review (AFR) has reported. 

Affinity, which owns and operates around 150 early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres across Australia’s east coast, was purchased by Anchorage Capital in 2015 for around $212 million and has since been led by CEO Tim Hickey who will remain with the company post sale. 

“We have come a long way and yet there is so much more to do. I’m excited about partnering with Quadrant to take Affinity to a truly world class organisation,” Mr Hickey said.

Quadrant, Affinity’s new owner, is already known to the ECEC space having purchased a majority stake in Junior Adventures Group, Australia’s second largest outside school hours care (OSHC) provider, in 2018. 

The deal will be funded by Quadrant’s QPE7 fund which raised around $1.24 billion at the end of 2020. 

It is understood that Quadrant is committed to continuing to grow the Affinity network and invest more broadly in the Affinity team.

To read the AFR coverage of this story, please see here.