Dive Summary:
- The International Finance Corporation announced Wednesday that it is making a $150 million equity investment in Baltimore-based for-profit education company Laureate Education, Inc., which operates 65 colleges in 29 countries.
- The IFC is an arm of the world bank focused on the private sector in developing countries, and the Laureate Education investment is its largest ever in education, though Laureate says the IFC's stake in the company is less than 5%.
- The IFC announced a $40 million loan to the company in July to help build two new campuses of its Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Peru, and a similar IFC loan for Laureate colleges in Panama is awaiting final approval.
From the article:
The International Finance Corporation on Wednesday announced a $150 million equity investment in Laureate Education, Inc., a Baltimore-based, privately held, for-profit education company that operates 65 career-oriented colleges in 29 countries. The investment is the largest-ever in education on the part of the IFC, an arm of the World Bank that focuses exclusively on the private sector in developing countries. "It's not a large investment relative to the capital base we have in the company, but the significance for us is relative to the strategic partnership we have with the IFC," said Douglas L. Becker, Laureate’s chairman and CEO. ...