Mubasher: Pearson has agreed the sale of its Wall Street English (WSE) business to Baring Private Equity Asia and CITIC Capital for around $300 million, Reuters reported on Monday.
However, the company’s proceeds from the deal will be just a third of that, as $50 million would cover tax and net transaction costs while $150 million would be retained in the disposed business.
Pearson has sold several assets, including the Financial Times newspaper and the Economist magazine, to focus on its core education business and cut the debt, which reached GBP 1.3 billion by the end of September.
The company’s CEO John Fallon said that the deal is part of continued efforts to focus on a smaller number of bigger opportunities in global education and to become simpler and more efficient.
