Ambow Education Group said yesterday it has secured a $54
million investment, a sign of growing venture capital interest in
the nation's education sector.
It's the country's biggest VC investment in education - more
than the combined total of three deals in the sector announced last
month.
Macquarie Bank Group led the deal, supported by existing
investors CID Capital, Cisco Systems and new investor Avenue
Capital. China Renaissance Partners advised Ambow on the deal.
Ambow received its first round of VC investment of $10 million
from JAFCO Investment, CID Capital and Cisco Systems in April
2006.
Funds will mainly be used for business expansion and mergers and
acquisitions.
"It will enable us to move faster to integrate quality and
traditional teaching resources as well as enhance the value chain
of the education sector," said Huang Jin, founder and CEO of
Ambow.
Education has become an increasingly popular target for
international investors since 2006, when they began shifting away
from the IT industry toward traditional and service sectors.
"Explosive growth and development has made education one of the
hottest areas for VC, alongside media and hospitality," said Zhu
Yun, managing director of the research center at Zero2IPO Group, a
local venture capital and private equity service provider.
The size of the Ambow investment is likely to prompt further
large-scale deals, Zhu said.
(China Daily October 10, 2007)
