For-profit education provider Apollo Education Group (APOL), the owner of the University of Phoenix, said on Monday it would be taken private by a consortium in a deal valued at $1.1 billion.
The offer price of $9.50 per share is a 36.7% premium to Apollo stock’s Friday’s close.
Apollo Education’s shares jumped almost 30% in premarket trading. The company had a market value of $754.4 million as of Friday’s close.
The consortium includes the Vistria Group funds affiliated with Apollo Global Management and private investment firm Najafi Companies.
Apollo Education said in January it was considering selling itself after years of declining student enrollments.
Apollo Education and rivals such as DeVry Education Group (DV) and ITT Educational Services (ESI) have faced tougher regulation since a series of government investigations in 2010 revealed low graduation rates and poor job prospects for graduates, who were also burdened with high student debt.
Barclays, Credit Suisse and Evercore acted as financial advisers to Apollo Education, while Sullivan & Cromwell served as its legal adviser. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison was the legal adviser to the consortium.
