Jan 4, 2023

4 January 2023 Europe Private equity firm Stirling Square Capital Partners has decided to split up specialist education and care provider Outcomes First Group (OFG) with its fostering business National Fostering Group, Education Investor can reveal. Splitting the company and separating the fostering unit could make it easier to sell the education side of the business, which had attracted some interest in previous negotiations, according to a market source. OFG’s brands Acorn Education and Care – a provider of specialist education for children and young people with social, emotional, mental health or learning needs – and Options Autism – a provider of education services for those with autism, complex needs and learning difficulties – will continue to be operated by OFG. Last summer, Stirling halted the sale of OFG after trying to find an acquirer for almost a year. Among the potential bidders there were a few private equity and infrastructure firms, including ICG, Mubadala, Civitas and Onex. The company was marketed off an EBITDA just north of £110m, with an expected valuation in the 11-14x region, according to two sources. “Price expectations were quite high. In addition, the possible repercussions of a report published by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on the children’s social care market made the process even more challenging,” one of our sources told us at the time. Based in Bolton, OFG is a provider of fostering, learning and therapeutic care for children, young people and adults with autism, complex needs and social, emotional and mental health difficulties. OFG is the result of a consolidation project pursued by Stirling since 2015, when it acquired NFA Group, a provider of independent fostering services, by deploying capital from its £600 million third fund. The private equity firm subsequently boosted the company’s growth with the add-on of special educational needs provider Acorn in 2016. In August 2019, Stirling’s NFA Group acquired Outcomes First from private equity firm Sovereign Capital, which had owned the company since 2013. Stirling did not respond to a request for comment. Subscriber content