Houlihan Lokey Advises THI Investments

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that it has advised THI Investments (THI) on its investment in Corndel, the UK’s largest provider of data analytics and management apprenticeship programmes. The transaction closed on 27 November 2020.

Founded in 2016, Corndel is a multi-award-winning, employment-focused management and technology apprenticeship provider, with more than 3,500 learners on current programmes. To date, the company has supported more than 8,000 learners from UK blue-chip clients—including Asda, Bupa, Capita, and Kier—to realise organisational objectives and build scaled data and technology capabilities. Corndel’s disruptive focus on curriculum quality, with virtual one-to-one coaching from commercial experts at its heart, has made it the go-to provider for large, multinational clients focused on quality training for their workforce.

THI is a European family-owned private equity investor with total assets under management of more than €1.8 billion. The firm provides patient capital, operational understanding, and support to middle-market companies from its offices in London and Stuttgart, Germany. THI seeks to invest into market-leading businesses by backing strong management teams. The firm is already invested in Learnship GlobalEnglish, an online provider of B2B online language learning and intercultural training products based in the US and Germany. Education and training is one of THI’s core areas of focus.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to THI. This transaction builds on Houlihan Lokey’s market-leading position in the education and training sector. Other recent transactions in the sector include acting for BIMM Institute on its sale to ICG plc; itslearning on its sale to Sanoma Group; Skillsoft on its Chapter 11 restructuring and subsequent sale to Churchill Capital Corp. II; Judicium Education on its sale to Supporting Education Group; Oakley Capital on the acquisition of Seagull; AIR Assessment, the student assessment division of the American Institutes for Research, on its sale to Cambium Learning Group, Inc.; Cambridge University on its acquisition of Durham University’s Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring; Kallidus on its sale to Apse Capital; Inflexion on its acquisitions of Times Higher Education and Calco; Atlas Knowledge on its sale to Mintra Group; and Primary Capital on its acquisition of ICS Learn.