Granada Learning - sold at last!
The saga is finally over and as we predicted several months ago ITV have now sold Granada Learning (GL) to the private equity company Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) for £53m – thought to consist of £35m as the sale price with another £18m due if certain sales and performance targets are met.
While this is much less than the original £80m price tag that Van Tulleken had put on GL when they were in charge of the sale last year, it seems a reasonable price given the current uncertainty in the market. VSS have already installed the ex-Chairman of T&F Informa, David Smith, as the Executive Chairman at GL. How long it will take to whip GL into shape prior to either merging it with Sherston or possibly selling it onto someone like Pearson or Reed is uncertain.
David Smith has a long track record in publishing and has previously been Chief Executive and Chairman at Taylor & Francis and Chief Executive of Wolters Kluwer’s European Education and Legal, Tax and Business divisions. Quite what Mr Smith will do with Granada’s commitment to North Liverpool Academy remains to be seen, but pulling out of this venture (if at all possible) would be a good way to save a large chunk of money.