Laureate Education, the largest for-profit higher education company, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering. However, the deal size is likely a placeholder for an IPO that we estimate could raise $1 billion.
In 2007, KKR (NYSE: KKR) led a consortium of PE investors in the $3.8 billion acquisition of Laureate. KKR is also the largest shareholder of First Data (FDC), set to raise $3 billion during the week of October 12 in what would be the largest IPO of 2015.
Founder, Chairman and CEO Douglas Becker included a letter to prospective investors in the filing where he stated that Laureate Education would be the largest Public Benefit Corporation by far, in addition to being the only one that is publicly-traded. It also expects to soon become a Certified B Corporation. April IPO Etsy (ETSY; -11%) noted in its filings that it was a Certified B Corp.
The Baltimore, MD-based company, which was founded as Sylvan Learning Systems in 1989 and booked $4.5 billion in sales for the 12 months ended June 30, 2015, plans to list under the symbol LAUR. It has not selected an exchange. Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, J.P. Morgan, BMO Capital Markets, Citi, KKR and Goldman Sachs are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.
