Houlihan Lokey Advises Copperfield

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Copperfield Education (Copperfield) has been acquired by Dukes Education Group. The transaction closed on 27 February 2023. The deal value is undisclosed.

Copperfield is a leading international school in an inspiring and safe location. Founded in 2020 by Hugh McCormick, Copperfield has a ski-in ski-out, pedestrian-only campus at 1,650 metres of altitude in Verbier, Switzerland. Through small-group learning, Copperfield delivers world-renowned academic programmes: the IB Primary Years Programme, IB Diploma Programme, Cambridge IGCSE, and A-levels. Copperfield's mission is to educate students who are globally minded, compassionate, confident, and kind.

Dukes Education is the premium education group in Europe and one of the fastest-growing family of schools globally. Founded by Aatif Hassan in 2015, it owns a number of independent schools, colleges, and nurseries, as well as summer schools and camps, university and medical school consultancies, immersive career experience providers, and one-to-one student support offerings, creating a cradle-to-career suite of services.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to Copperfield and its shareholders. This builds upon Houlihan Lokey’s market-leading position in the education sector. Other transactions covering the schools sector and associated software and services to schools include the sale of a minority investment in Twinkl to Vitruvian Partners as well as the sales of Minerva Education to Dukes Education; Clio to Egmont; CPOMS to Raptor Technologies; Impero to Investcorp Technology Partners; Tes Supply to Lloyds Development Capital, and Judicium Education to Supporting Education Group, as well as advising the Special Committee of Nord Anglia Education Inc. on its take-private by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Baring Private Equity Asia; TA Associates on their investment in Inspired Education; Dukes Education on its acquisition of Eaton House; Cambridge University on its acquisition of the University of Durham’s Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, and CBPE on its investment in The Key.