International education entrepreneur Alberto Tassone has paid $9 million for a Peppermint Grove home, as a private equity player emerged with a majority stake in the school he co-founded.
International education entrepreneur Alberto Tassone has paid $9 million for a Peppermint Grove pad, as a private equity player emerged with a majority stake in the school he co-founded.
The property purchase largely coincided with a Quadrant Private Equity fund taking a majority stake in Stanley College, the international school Mr Tassone and Dhyan Singh co-founded in 2009.
The price for Stanley College was undisclosed but is understood to reflect a desire for further expansion, including to Sydney, for the institution which is already one of the biggest players in the field with 3,200 students across four campuses in West Perth, Mirrabooka and Adelaide.
However, Mr Tassone has used the moment to update his own accommodation, acquiring more than 800 square metres in Irvine Street Peppermint Grove in a May 1 transaction that preceded the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s approval of the SIC deal by less than a fortnight.
Quadrant now owns 65 per cent of the ordinary shares or about 58 per cent of the total equity when redeemable preference shares are included. Mr Tassone and Mr Singh’s interests hold the other ordinary shares and all the preference shares.
In its annual report for the year ending December 31, Stanley College made a new profit of $7.7 million on revenue of $52.7 million, up from a $2.1 million net profit on turnover of $44 million in the previous corresponding period.
It paid a dividend in February of $4.8 million, following a $200,000 interim payout in August.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was $13.3 million.
At an EBITDA multiple of five times that would have valued the business at about $65 million.
By comparison, IDP Education has a price to earnings ratio of about 14 times based on a $44.5 million net profit and a market capitalisation of $630 million, based on its recent ASX trading at about $2.20 per share. Revenue was $882 million.
Unprofitable G8 Education, also listed, has turnover of $940 million and a market capitalisation of about $110 million.
ASX valuations are typically more generous than those applied in private transactions.
The Peppermint Grove acquisition is far from the first property play for Mr Tassone.
His and Mr Singh’s interests own two West Perth properties that school operates from – 67 Outram Street acquired in 2015 for $6.7 million and 1275 Hay Street bought in 2022 for $4.7 million – as well as the Mirrabooka campus which they purchased from Stanley College for $5 million in January.
In 2023, Messrs Tassone and Singh’s Academic Property Group paid $21 million for 10 William Street, a six-story building in Perth’s CBD which is home to other education providers including Kaplan.
