The company, which is now the nursery-place market leader in the UK and runs the elite Princess Christian nursery chain, announced earlier this year that it intended to dispose of its UK schools division because it is no longer core to its strategy.
Though the schools were profitable and cash-generating - they made '811,000 on turnover of '9.35m last year - they earned a lower return on capital than that achieved across the group as a whole.
Nord Anglia has now sold its 10 schools to Gems Education, a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Education Management Systems.
They include seven in the north - in Urmston, Marple, Bolton, Oldham, West Didsbury, Ormskirk and Bingley, West Yorkshire.
The company, whose interim results announced in May showed a dip in profits from '2.1m to '970,000, despite an increase in turnover from '41.2m to '45.5m is focused on its ambition to expand its day nursery division.
Chairman Kevin McNeany says it now has a strong nursery business at the centre of the group, providing a stable base from which to further develop the high return outsourcing and international schools divisions.
Its outsourcing division includes a schools inspection contract with the Department of Education, and it runs nine schools overseas, including one in Moscow and another in Shanghai.
In May the group bought Leapfrog nurseries in a '60m deal and has acquired 28 nurseries operated by Jigsaw.
It now runs 101 nurseries offering 10,262 places.
The group also recently sold its former head office in Eden Place, Cheadle, for '1m, moving to larger premises in Carrs Road, and disposed of properties in Islington for '4.12m.
Tweet
