Carlyle, Citi Sell Wall Street Institute to Pearson

LONDON (Dow Jones)--The Carlyle Group Thursday said that it has sold English training business, the Wall Street Institute, to U.K.-based publisher Pearson PLC (PSON.LN) for $92 million.

The Wall Street Institute's 340 franchised centers, together with its online tools, provide spoken English training in 25 regions across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.

Carlyle, which owned WSI together with Citi Private Equity, bought the business in 2005 with cash from its growth capital fund Carlyle Venture Partners II. The private equity owners put in new management, expanded the business geographically and introduced new products and tools as well as streamlining the Luxembourg-based business' operations across its worldwide centers.

For Pearson, the deal, its third acquisition since selling its 61% stake in IDC for around $2 billion before tax in May, is a further example of the company making good on its strategy to expand its education business in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Since May it has also bought Melorio PLC (MLO.LN) for GBP99.3 million and Sistema Educacional Brasileiro's learning systems business for GBP326 million.

Pearson also publishes the Financial Times newspaper and Penguin books.