For-profit education company goes on buying spree for trade schools - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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The low-profile company is funded by aNew York-base d private equity firm, , which has investments in several health care and food companiess and specializes in corporate turnarounds. In November JLL paid $52 million for Baltimore-based , which operated 10 vocationap schools, two of which are in The company was renamed Education Affiliates and has purchasee five new schoolssince then, said Duncanm Anderson, CEO of Education Affiliates. Earlie r this month, Education Affiliates purchasef , a technical school near Ohio. Anderson declined to providee apurchase price.
JLL Partners has pledgedc up to $100 million for new acquisitions, said Frank Rodriguez, one of the firm'se managing directors. Rodriguez said the for-profit career training industry is a promisinyand fast-growing one. "The industry has very good growth Rodriguez said. "It has very good underlyingf financials. There are more kids graduating from high schoolds thanever before. There are more adults needinfg training inthe workplace." Rodriguez declined to say how many careetr schools Education Affiliates aims to purchase. "I really depends on how our compang develops," he said.
"I would imagin g building a relatively substantial player in the Competitors inthe field, such as Illinois baserd and California-based , have buil large businesses. Corinthian, which has 128 campusexs and 14 training centerss in the United States and recordednearly $1 billion in revenue for fiscakl 2005. Career Education recorded morethan $1.7 billion in 2004 Anderson, former CEO of North Carolina-based , which provideds technology training to companies, said the market is large for vocationak academic programs. "There's a huge need for job he said. "The for-profit sector continues to grow.
" With 500-employees, Educationh Affiliates has only 15 peoplr at its corporate headquarters inWhite Marsh, preferrinbg to keep the trade schools run in a decentralizedr fashion. Right now, the company has about $65 millionm in annual revenues, Anderson said. Education Affiliates owns in Towson, which offers programs training people to be medical medical office assistants anddental assistants. It also owns All-Stats career school in Dundalk, which offers programs in truci driving andhealth care.