Nordian Capital Partners and management shareholders announced today that they sold their stake in Luzac to the NCOI Group. With this acquisition both Luzac and NCOI Group give substance to their strategic ambitions. In this new situation Luzac will strengthen its position as a small-scale private school for secondary education. Furthermore, Luzac will offer full-time higher education starting in school year ’17-’18.
Luzac has found a strategic partner in NCOI Group, adding educational as well as financial value. In the past 30 years Luzac has grown into the leading provider of private secondary education, with currently approximately 2,000 students and more than 650 employees in 17 cities across the Netherlands.
Director Luzac Bart Stomphorst: “Luzac has become a synonym for personal and qualitative secondary education. We prepare children in the age of 12 to 18 for a successful future in an effective way while always taking the personal needs and ambitions of our students into account. With NCOI Group as our new strategic partner we can expand our concept to higher education.”
The logical expansion of Luzac to higher education
With the introduction of higher education Luzac will now also offer students small-scale and personal education, similar to its secondary school offerings. Students are supported individually and intensively in their study activities, to improve their performance and encourage their personal development. As such, students get the best out of their study and themselves. From the academic year 2017-2018, students can go to different locations in the Netherlands for several different courses, including management, business administration, business economics, law and IT. “With the acquisition of Luzac we are able to offer expertise that we have accumulated in higher education to educating young students", according to Robert van Zanten, CEO of NCOI Group. “We foresee further privatization of higher education. Among other things, the current ‘student-loan-system’ students and their parents are encouraged to choose education that stands for quality, speed, security and efficiency. From an employers’ view, we see a need for a better connection between education and the labor market. We have fully arranged our educational concept to this trend. Partly through the acquisition of Luzac, we support young students to make their first steps into the labor market as successful as possible. This is in line with our mission to facilitate ‘Lifelong Learning’. Additionally, Luzac is a perfect match in terms of organization and culture, we are really complementary to each other. We are extremely proud that Luzac is going to be part of NCOI Group.” Luzac, as an excellent institution for private secondary education, will remain operating as an independent organization with 19 locations in 17 cities next to its headquarters.
About Nordian Capital Partners:
Nordian Capital is an independent private equity investor, which distinguishes itself by providing companies with tailor-made assistance to both increase and accelerate growth. Nordian believes in structural value growth by improving and increasing profitability and helps achieving this as a critical and involved partner. Nordian invests together with its management teams based on a clear investment case: a joint plan formulated by the management and shareholders that serves as the guiding principle for the company to grow.
The firm focuses on majority investments in the Dutch mid-market and manages two funds with a capital commitment of over EUR 500m. Its funds comprise of a portfolio of 13 companies. For further information, visit www.nordian.nl.
About Luzac
Luzac offers private education on mavo-, havo- en vwo-level, from first grade to graduate. Luzac is proud to be a leading provider for more than 30 years of private education, thereby giving direction to the lives of young adults and to education.
About NCOI Group
It is the mission of NCOI Group to facilitate ‘Lifelong Learning’ in the Netherlands. Besides our well-known brand NCOI Education several renowned educators are part of NCOI Group, including Scheidegger, NTI, Schoevers, ISBW, Computrain, Markus Verbeek Praehep, NIBE-SVV, Pro Education, ISES, LECTRIC and Bestuursacademie Nederland. NCOI Group has approximately 1,200 employees and approximately 3,500 active freelance professionals. NCOI is a preferred supplier of the largest part of the Top 500 organizations in the Netherlands. www.ncoi.nl