24 Jul 2015

Intueri Education to buy Institute of Sport

8:42 am on 24 July 2015

Intueri Education said it will buy the New Zealand Institute of Sport for about $19 million.

The private education provider said the purchase is conditional on obtaining regulatory approval and includes the sport institute's subsidiary - the New Zealand College of Massage.

The final purchase price will be 5.5 times the businesses' underlying profit in 2016, which is expected to be $3.5 million.

Intueri chief executive Rob Facer said the company will make an initial payment of $17.6 million, funded by debt, followed by a potential interim payment in March 2016, and a final payment in March 2017.

Mr Facer said the businesses are a good fit with the company's existing portfolio of private education providers and vocational training centres.

The sport and massage facilities have almost 1,000 student enrolments a year, which will boost Intueri's overall student numbers to more than 13,000.

"The ability to offer sports-based programmes will offer significant opportunities to further increase our international student numbers," he said.