Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/eleventh-annual-status-report-on-for-profit-child-care-sesame-street-meets-wall-street/5011912/
1997 will be remembered as the year that Wall Street embraced the for profit child care world. Throughout the 1990s, financiers have demonstrated growing interest in child care as an investment opportunity - in fact, several child care companies made successful public offerings in the mid '90s, although the track record of their stocks has been a bit inconsistent. In 1997, however, several developments heralded a breakthrough . . .- In January, takeover giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts took KinderCare Learning Centers private by purchasing 85% of the shares of the largest child care chain.
- In August, CorporateFamily Solutions raised $27 million in a successful initial public offering.
- In September, Education Alternatives, known for its Tesseract elementary school programs, agreed to acquire regional child care chain Sunrise Educational Services.
- In November, Bright Horizons Children's Centers raised $42 million in a successful initial public offering.
Another indication of growing interest in child care by the financial community was the response to the October White House Conference on Children (see page 18). Not only did this event generate a plethora of coverage for child care in the popular press, but financial journalists in a variety of publications from the Wall Street Journal and the New ...