BUDAPEST and WARSAW, August 07, 2018 – Central Group, a leading Hungarian investment group, today announced that it has agreed to acquire Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne S.A. (“WSiP”), one of Poland’s largest and most innovative educational services providers, from Advent International. This acquisition is an important part of Central Group’s Central and Eastern European regional investment strategy.

WSiP is well known for providing high quality services and solutions to the Polish educational system, leveraging its 70 years heritage in the market. Advent acquired WSiP in February 2010 and with its support, the company has gone through a major phase of business transformation. The company has evolved from a textbook publisher to a leading comprehensive educational services provider following the launch of tutoring services, self-learning, digital products and teacher’s solutions in recent years. WSiP now provides a range of comprehensive solutions and educational services, in all areas of school-, and non-school education. It is present at all levels of the educational system for children aged 3 to 18 years old as well as in the vocational segment.

An Advent International spokesperson, commented: “Since Advent acquired WSiP, the business undertook a significant transformation. The provision of a comprehensive product offering created through both organic and inorganic growth, has resulted in WSiP becoming one of Poland’s leading providers of both traditional educational and digital solutions. The number of registered online users has increased by over 700% during our ownership, an achievement of which we are very proud. We wish WSiP and Central Group every success for the future.”

Central Group, is a Hungarian-based strategic investor, with experience of investing in a broad range of industries, including the media, book publishing, education, health care innovation, manufacturing, aviation and real estate management industries. Of particular relevance to WSiP is the fact that Central Group currently owns the leading publisher of online and print magazines, which reaches almost 2/3rds of Hungary’s population. Its media portfolio includes the most popular and entertaining, educational and lifestyle magazine brands and digital products. Central Group has also invested in the book publishing market and it currently publishes 600 book titles in Hungary, including classics such as Harry Potter, a range of Scandinavian crime stories and children’s books. In 2018, Central rethought and extended its publisher value chain by investing in one of the biggest and most innovative printing houses in Hungary. Leveraging this expertise, Central Group will partner with WSiP, to sustain its successful business model and create value in the Polish publishing and media market.

The Founder of Central Group, Mr. Zoltán Varga, said: “Central Group is deeply committed to the development of the Central Eastern European region. I am delighted and honoured to invest in the Polish publishing industry. As Central Group has extensive experience in media, book publishing, printing and education sectors we are excited to work with WSiP’s management and the entire company. I am sure that we can learn a lot from each other.”

Mr. Jerzy Garlicki CEO of WSiP added: “In the recent years, WSiP has considerably expanded its range of modern educational services targeted at the school and corporate market as well as at retail clients. The scale of our activity within the new areas is comparable to our activity in textbook publishing. We are the leaders, both in regards to language school chains under the name of Profi-Lingua and Empik School, as well as training and professional development of teachers. We are convinced that Central Group’s vast experience in new media, as well as in B2C will significantly support our further intensive development predominantly in these areas, which we consider very promising.”

The transaction is subject to Polish competition authority clearance (UOKiK).