August 2019
Broomfield House School
Adviser to Broomfield House School and Montessori Nurseries on their sale to Dukes Education
£undisclosed
Grant Thornton team
Education
Sell side
Corporate finance
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We are delighted to have advised Broomfield House School, Kew Montessori Nursery School and St Margaret's Montessori Nursery School on their sale to Dukes Education.

Founded in 1876, Broomfield House is the oldest school in Kew, it is a co-educational preparatory day school providing an Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) rated Excellent education to 192 children aged 3 to 11 years old. It has a track-record of sending over three quarters of its pupils to the top 50 independent schools in the UK and in 2018 was ranked the 8th best prep school in London. 

Broomfield has two feeder nurseries nearby in Kew and St. Margaret’s, that provide a Montessori accredited education to pupils from two years of age. With a capacity of 130, the nurseries enjoy consistently high occupancy levels with room for further growth and expansion. 

We provided corporate finance advice to the shareholders running a confidential marketing process to a pre-vetted selection of deliverable buyers. 

The buyer, Dukes Education, is one of the UK's fastest growing K12 education groups, focussed on acquiring quality nurseries and schools that share their culture of high performance. 

Dukes, Broomfield and the nurseries have secured a new owner with the experience, scale and funding to enable the group to continue to thrive. 

We drove a competitive auction process leveraging our extensive UK independent schools knowledge, experience and network of buyers. From launching the marketing process through to completion, a deal was completed in only two months, exceeding our client’s expectations and securing the perfect partner ahead of the new school year. 

Testimonial
We were delighted with the advice, support and professionalism that the team at Grant Thornton brought to the process of selling our schools. They advised us on the optimal time to sell, guided us through the preparation for sale stage, and then undertook the auction and negotiation with skill, ambition and a healthy dose of realism. They were always in touch to help overcome the inevitable challenges that occur during a sales process including managing the demands of buyers and being there for us out of hours to make sure the sale went through as planned. We are happy to recommend Grant Thornton to school proprietors as an excellent commercial choice for managing and advising on a school sale.
Norton York Proprietor, Broomfield House School