Media News - Thursday, May 29, 2008

Pearson expands in China

Publishing group Pearson has acquired large stakes in two privately owned chains of English language schools in China. Pearson is buying shareholdings in the Learning Education Center (LEC) and the Dell English chains of language schools. LEC was founded in 2000 and has 17 schools, primarily in Shanghai. It provides English language tuition to children aged between 5 and 12, outside of school hours. Pearson is acquiring an 80 percent stake in LEC from its founders. Dell English was founded in 1999 and teaches students aged between 15 and 35. It has more than 20 schools, mostly based in Beijing. Pearson’s initial stake in Dell is 50 percent but this will be expanded to 70 percent over the next three years as Pearson invests to expand the business. In aggregate the two chains had sales of around USD 10m in 2007 and gross assets at the end of last year of about USD 6.2m. 'We are significantly accelerating our investment and growth in China,’ said Marjorie Scardino, Pearson’s chief executive. ‘It is a market where public and private spending on education is growing rapidly, where parents see that English language proficiency is central to their children's success and adults see that English greatly improves their job prospects in the global economy,’ Scardino added. (Cityam.com)

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