Platina Partners takes a majority stake in L’Ermitage International School of France

Platina Partners (« Platina ») has acquired the Ermitage group, a bilingual and international school located in Maisons Laffitte (Paris area). With over 75 nationalities represented and 1,500 students, Ermitage enrols learners from kindergarten to Baccalaureate levels pursuing either a bilingual French curriculum (établissement sous contrat d’association) or International Baccalaureate (English-speaking international educational programme).

Founded in 1941 by Anne Marie Thommeret, L’Ermitage is a private secular institution where the focus on languages proficiency and academic excellence enables students to access prime higher-education establishments. Owned by its founding family since its inception in 1941, the school further developed over the past 30 years under the tenure of Christopher Hunter.

The project backed by Platina is one that fits in with the current development of l’Ermitage, which involves growth of human resources and add-on real estate investments to provide a high-quality international environment, optimized for students to strive and acquire relevant skills. « Our objective is to further expand the international sections, which have been operating for many years now, while ensuring academic excellence and compliance with the group’s ethics and values. » (Benjamin Hunter, General Manager).

Quoting Christopher Hunter: « As sole shareholders, Virginie Thommeret and myself eventually opted for Platina as not only did they deeply share our values but also appeared to be the best-suited to achieve our life-time vision. Looking at both the fundamentals surrounding this deal and the quality of Platina’s management team, I truly believe that L’Ermitage International School of France is now ideally positioned to succeed in its development. ».

This investment is very relevant to Platina’s strategy, which entails building leading platforms in growing markets and meeting fundamental needs resulting from long term societal and demographic drivers. In effect, this is the fourth asset acquired by Platina in the education space after “Groupe des Ecoles Denis Huisman” (higher education), “Avenir Santé Formation” (workforce training solutions for healthcare professionals) and “Fitec” (reskilling and remote training solutions).

Charles Dubar, Partner at Platina Partners noted : « The international K12 and higher-education markets enjoy a strong momentum on the demand side. However, only a handful of French investors have managed to become credible and build a legitimate reputation in the sector. We therefore view l’Ermitage as the perfect building-block around which we can develop a high-standard, private, secular and international education group in France as much as abroad. ».

Platina Partners: Thomas Rottner, Charles Dubar, Karim Zaghlan