China scores major acquisition of UK-based international school network

An ambitious Guangdong-based education company, has bought CATS Colleges - an international school network of seven campuses and 10 international language schools across the UK, the United States and China - for 150 million pounds ($187.6 million).

Bright Scholar, a major operator of international and bilingual K-12 schools in China, called their accquisition a significant acceleration in the expansion of its overseas portfolio. It has already bought three other UK schools over the last year.

Bright Scholar operates 69 schools in China with more than 42,000 students.

CATS has campuses in Boston in the US, Cambridge, London, and Canterbury in the UK, and in Shanghai, China. Together with the language schools, these institutions serve more than 2,000 students from around 80 nations.

Chinese companies have increased their interest in British education properties in recent years. The demand stems in part from a rising middle class that is willing to pay for bilingual learning in order to gain entry into elite English-speaking universities.

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