Exited
Sunlight Education Nucleus (SEN)
Northwest England
LOCATION
Education
SECTOR
November 2017
INITIAL DEAL
Overview
In 2017, Puma Private Equity invested £4.7 million into SEN, a provider of special educational needs schools, and has since made a successful exit.
About SEN
SEN is a provider of special educational needs schools in the Midlands, run by an expert management team with a proven track record of sourcing, developing and launching highly successful special educational needs settings.
The business’s first school in Stafford, West Midlands opened strongly and traded ahead of budget. In September 2020, SEN opened a second school in Crewe, Cheshire with four times the number of students originally expected and again traded ahead of forecast. Referrals from Local Authorities were strong, and accordingly both schools hired new staff to cater for the increased demand.
Exit
Puma Private Equity has completed an exit of its stake in SEN, which represents a 3.2x return on the Company’s equity investment.
THE COMPANY'S VIEW
“Puma invested in our management team in 2018 which provided a significant catalyst for our organic expansion into new geographical areas. Puma were our investors for four years and we always enjoyed a good relationship with them. “Their focus was to assist in areas of strategic discussion and development; they played a particularly strong role in the increased professionalism of the financial function, the strengthening of financial reporting and the identification and measurement of KPIs. It has proven to be a very successful partnership for all involved. ”
OUR VIEW
“We’re incredibly proud to have played a role in SEN’s development over the last four years. Run by two inspirational leaders, SEN has created a fantastic model that supports the special educational needs community, incorporating personalised, therapeutic practices to help each pupil engage and develop. SEN’s current schools have a very strong performance record, and this deal should allow them to expand further and support even more children.”