DLA Piper advises Laureate Education on USD140 million sale of INTI to HOPE Education Group

DLA Piper has advised Laureate Education, Inc. (NASDAQ: LAUR), which owns and operates a global network of degree-granting higher education institutions under “Laureate International Universities”, on the USD140 million sale of INTI Education Holdings Sdn. Bhd. and its subsidiaries (INTI Education Group), a group of higher education institutions in Malaysia, to HOPE Education Group Co Ltd. The transaction was successfully completed on 29 September 2020.

INTI Education Group is one of the largest private higher education service providers in Malaysia in terms of student enrollment, with over 16,500 students. It owns and operates one university and five colleges in Malaysia, and is recognised by the Malaysian Ministry of Education with higher education qualifications and qualifications of degree awarding. It is included in the white list of education related foreign supervision of the Ministry of Education of the PRC, which meets the requirements for mutual recognition of Chinese and Malaysian education.

HOPE Education Group (Hong Kong) Company Limited is an established operator of higher education institutions, including universities and vocational colleges, and is looking forward to welcoming INTI Education Group into its network.

DLA Piper M&A partner Heng Loong Cheong, who led the team advising on the transaction, commented: “DLA Piper is pleased to leverage our extensive experience of executing M&A deals in Malaysia, combined with our education sector expertise to assist Laureate Education during what has become a remarkably busy time for Asian M&A deals in the education sector. We congratulate Laureate Education on this important transaction.”

The DLA Piper team was led by Corporate partner Heng Loong Cheong (Hong Kong and Singapore), with support from associates Andhari Sidharta (Singapore) and Karen Lee (Singapore).