Carlyle to enter China's education market

U.S.-based private global investment firm the Carlyle Group (CAGP) announced on Tuesday that it plans to invest US$20 million to take a stake in NeWorld Education Group, marking CAGP's first entry into China's education market.

NeWorld Education has been the fifth Chinese company in which Carlyle has taken a stake. Its previous investments in China include online travel (Ctrip), storage software, and outdoor media.

A senior official at Carlyle revealed that the growth momentum of China's educational market attracts the buyout firm most. But further financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Carlyle's investment will support New World's strong push in developing new business lines and geographic expansion to more than 120 schools across 18 to 20 Chinese cities by 2009. The segments New World targets are estimated to be more than US$1 billion in aggregation and are growing at 30% per annum.

China has a large and rapidly growing education market that is powered by economic expansion, rising individual disposable income, and growing importance of language proficiency in career development. Seizing such huge opportunities, NeWorld has developed a significant presence in Japanese language training with a network of 65 schools in 13 Chinese cities in just 10 years.