Vietnamese schools seek to lure capital, expertise

Private education assets in Vietnam have recently become more appealing as private equity and other investors seek to further tap the country’s growing middle class.

Hanoi-based education group EQuest, which received $100 million in investment from American global investment KKR firm in June 2021, has just acquired a controlling stake in Khoi Nguyen Education Group, or KNE.

Neither side disclosed the transaction terms. In a joint announcement dated December 5 publicizing the strategic partnership, they said they would share financial resources, management practices, exchange teaching resources, technology platforms, and development experiences from the two systems. Students in the two networks have more opportunities to access and experience world-class training programs.

Some sector sources estimated this EQuest investment may hit nearly $100 million.

Four representatives of EQuest will be appointed to KNE’s board of directors. They include EQuest chairman and CEO Nguyen Quoc Toan, and Annabelle Vultee, who has advised U.S. giant KKR on the due diligence of some education investments. She was the former China chief operating officer of EF Education First, and joined EQuest’s board of directors following KKR’s investment in EQuest.

KNE, set up in 2010, operates four K-12 schools, namely Canadian International School Vietnam (CIS), Canadian International School Bilingual (BCIS), Albert Einstein School (AES), and Canada-Vietnam Kindergarten (CVK), with over 3,000 students altogether. K-12 means education from kindergarten to 12th grade.

EQuest, one of Vietnam’s largest private educational institutions, added it would apply for Cognia accreditation at CIS, BCIS, AES, and CVK. Cognia is a U.S.-based organization that assesses and accredits schools globally.

“The primary goal of this strategic cooperation is to help transform CIS, BCIS, AES, and CVK into the most prestigious and most trusted international and bilingual school system in Ho Chi Minh City and southern provinces,” said the EQuest CEO.

TAEL Partners, a Singapore-headquartered private equity firm said in 2018 that it invested in EQuest but did not unveil the value.

Spark Education Group, also headquartered in Singapore, announced late this November a joint venture with Everest Education to bring world-class online learning to Vietnam. Everest is a private provider of offline and online education services in the country.

KKR is also an investor in Spark Education, while some major others are Sequoia, IDG Capital, GGV Capital, TrustBridge, and Carlyle.

Both Spark Education and Everest did not disclose their capital contributions to the joint venture.

This collaboration has merged Everest’s online business with Spark Education's proprietary technology platform and courseware, localized for the Vietnamese market. The JV has localized its platform VISPARK (www.vispark.edu.vn), and launched with its math program based on Singapore Math concepts taught in Vietnamese.

Everest Education CEO Don Le said, “Spark Education has invested over $100 million into research and development of the VISPARK curriculum.”

The Dwight Schools, a U.S-based global network of International Baccalaureate (IB) world schools, announced on October 17 that its latest school, Dwight School Hanoi in Vietnam’s capital, would open next August for grades 1-5, followed by the addition of an early childhood division and grades 6-12 the following year.

Dwight School Hanoi is a partnership with Vietnamese conglomerate Bitexco. The partnership has made education the newest business of Bitexco’s ecosystem, which includes real estate, infrastructure development, financial investment, hospitality, renewable energy, oil and gas, telecommunications, and mineral water production.

Dwight School Hanoi’s home is The Manor Central Park, a new residential development and destination in central Hanoi built by Bitexco.

HCMC-based Nguyen Hoang Group, a leading educational services provider in Vietnam, started this June to work with a financial adviser to find a buyer for a minority stake in the private company, according to sector sources who asked not to be named because the process was not public.

However, there was no certainty the closely-held company would proceed with the plan.

HSBC Vietnam announced on August 9 that the international bank had signed a deal to provide Nguyen Hoang with a financing package from HSBC’s Female Entrepreneur Fund. The deal’s value was not disclosed due to confidentiality.

HSBC Vietnam, which acted as the mandated lead arranger and bookrunner in the deal, said Nguyen Hoang would use the funding for the expansion and construction of selected educational projects across Vietnam.