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21 Centrale Partners to sell Skill & You

Skill & You executives will be able to rely on the expertise of Andera Partners' teams in high growth projects to accelerate the development of the group beyond its current sectors and geographic markets, notably by opening new schools (as recently initiated with the launches of the School of Pros, Esecad, Be Academy and Challenge Compta) and by external growth operations

With nearly 100,000 students and 70 million euros of sales expected in 2018, the Skill & You group is a major player in distance learning on the French market. Through its 12 specialized schools, the group offers more than 200 professional training courses in various fields such as cooking, childcare, mechanics and aesthetics, the majority of which prepare for State diplomas (Bac Pro, BTS, CAP).Driven by its current management led by Eric Petco and Sonia Levy-Odier, and with the support of its historic shareholders, the group has undergone a profound transformation over the past few years in order to embrace the digital shift and assert itself as a reference e-learning player.The current operation rewards the hard work accomplished and marks the group's entry into a new phase of growth in France and Europe. Skill & You executives will be able to rely on the expertise of Andera Partners' teams in high growth projects to accelerate the development of the group beyond its current sectors and geographic markets, notably by opening new schools (as recently initiated with the launches of the School of Pros, Esecad, Be Academy and Challenge Compta) and by external growth operations.This transaction, which should be finalized at the end of the month, represents the first investment of the fund Winch Capital 4, the latest Winch Capital fund specializes in mid-caps investments and its first closing will be announced in the coming days. The financing of the transaction is completed with a unitranche loan from LGT European Capital.Eric Petco and Sonia Levy-Odier, Managers of Skill & You declare: « This operation is fully in line with the Group's growth project and marks its entry into a new era of scale change. We wanted to thank our historical shareholders for their support over the last years during which the group had to carry out a profound transformation. We look forward to the future with enthusiasm alongside the Andera Partners teams, whose expertise in this type of growth projects makes them a partner of choice to take Skill & You to the next level. »Laurent Tourtois and Sylvain Charignon, Partners at Andera Partners comment: « We are very happy to accompany Eric Petco and Sonia Levy-Odier in this new phase. We found in Skill & You teams what we've been looking for for a long time in the education sector: unique know-how in pedagogical engineering coupled with outstanding execution ability. Skill & You benefits from both the growth of the vocational education market and a digital business model and we believe that the group has the great potential to become a key e-learning player in Europe in the next years.»