Education investor AdvTech has extended its school buying spree with the $7.5m (R135m) purchase of Flipper International School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The group said on Thursday that the purchase would bolster its international portfolio with 3,000 more students across five new campuses located to the the east of the capital city and in its centre.
AdvTech highlighted Ethiopia’s rapid urbanisation, with Addis Ababa being the fifth-fastest-growing city in Africa.
According to the company, this had resulted in a growing demand for “high-quality private education”, as access to public schooling becomes increasingly constrained — particularly in the nation’s capital.
CEO Geoff Whyte said he was delighted to welcome Flipper to the AdvTech group, “as we expand our presence across Africa and further cement our status as the leaders in teaching and learning on the continent”.
AdvTech now operates in SA, Kenya, Botswana and Ethiopia through its Crawford International brand, Gaborone International School and Makini Schools, as well as Flipper.
“As a business, AdvTech is in a unique position to make a truly meaningful difference to people’s lives and futures,” said Whyte.
“Flipper International School has always been a beacon of academic excellence in the region. We look forward, therefore, to applying our resources and expertise to this school and taking it to even greater heights in the years to come.”
The acquisition of Flipper comes less than two months after AdvTech bought FNB’s training and conference centre in Sandton, which will be converted into a new university campus to co-locate two of the group’s biggest tertiary brands, Varsity College and Vega.
This new site is set to double the brands’ current combined capacity, accommodating up to 9,000 additional students by the start of the 2026 academic year.
“We are in the midst of major expansion projects at the Gaborone International School and the Crawford campus in Nairobi,” Whyte said.
The group’s new Pinnacle College campus is under construction and set to open in January, while it is also expanding its Rosebank College in Pretoria and Braamfontein, and relocating the Rosebank College in Cape Town to double the site’s student capacity.
AdvTech’s ongoing investment in expanding its operations across Africa comes partly on the back of a strong financial performance in the first half of the year, when the group reported operating profit of R865m as enrolment rose 6% year on year.
Commenting on the first half, Whyte said the improved enrolment reflected growing demand for the quality education that AdvTech offered. The company has been effective at capitalising on market tailwinds, as the level of trust in public education continues to slip.
“The number of state education schools available [in SA] is increasingly falling behind demand, and that’s especially true in tertiary education. On the schools’ side, the quality of education on offer is also deteriorating in a number of places,” Whyte said.
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