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Career Education Corporation has extended its international profile by acquiring a French company that operates nine postsecondary institutions in Bordeaux, Lyon, and Paris. The cost of the purchase was about $20-million, Career Education officials said.
The acquired company, Formastrat SA, which is also known as the INSEEC Group, enrolls about 4,000 students altogether. Seven of its institutions offer the French equivalent of baccalaureate- and master’s-degree programs in business. An eighth institution offers those degrees in communications. The ninth institution trains students to work in the health-care and pharmaceutical industries.
Although this is Career Education’s first direct acquisition outside the United States or Canada, it already enrolls about 2,000 students at campuses in Britain and the United Arab Emirates. It acquired those campuses when it bought the parent company of American Intercontinental University in November 2000.
Tracy Lorenz, a Career Education spokeswoman, said the company is also looking into additional international acquisitions.
The INSEEC Group was attractive, she said, because its institutions are well-regarded and, in France, only about 20 percent of the students are able to gain admission to one of the six public universities offering free tuition. Also, she said, the business curriculum at the French public universities is oriented more toward economics than general business.
On average, the cost of tuition at INSEEC Group institutions is equivalent to about $6,000 a year. The institutions generate annual revenues of about $23-million.
Career Education, based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., said its purchase price for Formastrat includes the cost of assuming about $3-million in debt held by the French company. With these new institutions, Career Education now has 51 campuses. Total enrollment tops 55,000, including students taking courses online.
Background article from The Chronicle:
