Drafting and advising on the takeover of an international college

In 2011, the Government introduced stringent limits on the numbers of international students that private colleges could recruit. As a result, many private colleges have struggled to continue to operate and have been forced to sell their business to colleges that are still able to trade. This has led to an increase in instructions from our education clients for advice and assistance on acquiring failing colleges.

One of our clients, a large international private college and UKBA Highly Trusted Sponsor, acquired the business of an international college that could not operate with its reduced student numbers. We were instructed to prepare the business and asset purchase agreement, specifically to acquire the college's academic teaching business. This required an assignment of all contracts to teach the transferring students, together with the purchase of all the related property, rights and assets of the business. In addition, the acquisition included the transfer of the academic staff of the teaching programmes and, therefore, the consideration of employment legislation.

Our corporate, employment and immigration teams worked efficiently to complete the transaction within our client's very short deadline and to guarantee that our acquisition documentation led to the transaction qualifying as a valid ‘takeover’ in accordance with UKBA Tier 4 guidance. Together with our immigration team, we also advised our client on the necessary post-completion notifications to ensure that these were made to the UKBA within its set timescales.

We have since completed a further three similar takeovers for this client, with another transaction due to commence in the very near future. 

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