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PRINT THIS PAGE Bowmark sells Education and Adventure Travel to DLJMB for £100m09/07/2008. Source: AltAssets. 
UK mid-market private equity firm Bowmark Capital has exited its investment in UK school travel group Education and Adventure Travel (EAT), through the sale to private equity firm DLJ Merchant Banking Partners for £100m. The sale generated a return of more than four times cost and an IRR of 63 per cent on Bowmark's total outlay of £18m, according to the firm. EAT is a specialist educational travel services business, providing activity and adventure trips, educational tours and school ski trips to over 200,000 students each year.
Bowmark created EAT through the merger of the School Travel Group and Kingswood Educational Group in October 2007. STG was the product of a series of mergers and acquisitions which began in December 2004 when Bowmark acquired UK school tour operator School Travel Service. STG made four further bolt-on acquisitions including Equity Travel in 2005, Pavilion Tours in 2006 and Kuoni Student Travel in 2007.
Bowmark acquired residential education and adventure activity business Kingswood separately in 2005. The company operates nine residential sites around the UK and has recently expanded its operations into France. It also owns commercial student camp operator Camp Beaumont.
Bowmark senior partner Mark Salter said, 'While the number of operators in the sector has undergone considerable consolidation in the past few years, we believe there is more to come. Via a targeted buy-and-build strategy, we have brought together several complementary businesses, and an executive team with unrivalled experience of this market, to create a highly successful business with excellent growth prospects.'
Bowmark invests across a range of industries including business services, leisure, healthcare, media and IT services.
In April of this year, the firm acquired residential care provider Healthcare Homes Group from August Equity for £75m.
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