Sovereign makes fourth hire in recent months Read more

  • Status: Current
  • Date: 2010
  • Sectors:
    • Education & Training
    • Lifestyle, Leisure & Travel
  • Buy & Build: 8

www.bimm.co.uk

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BIMM Institute

BIMM is the largest and leading provider of contemporary music education in Europe. With Sovereign's support BIMM has grown from two to six campuses and today provides over 6,500 students with a broad range of further and higher education qualifications in modern music, with courses delivered by tutors who are active professional musicians.

Investment Background

The UK is the world’s second-largest live music market, providing thousands of jobs and new work opportunities each year, thereby creating a strong student demand for further and higher education music courses. As a specialist investor in the education sector, Sovereign recoginsed BIMM's high quality offering and the opportunity to develop the group both organically and through acquisition. When the opportunity arose to back the MBO, the founding partners chose Sovereign.

Value Creation

  • 3 acquisitons
  • 8 new campuses opened
  • Expansion of course offering
  • Student numbers have increased from 1,150 to over 6,500

The Story So Far

When Sovereign first invested in BIMM the Group had 1,150 students in colleges in Brighton and Bristol in 2010. Within three months the group made it's first acquisition - Tech Music Schools (TMS) in London. Sovereign's Research & Origination team has known and tracked TMS since 2008, which was a core part of the Buy & Build strategy.

Since then, BIMM has opened schools in Dublin, Birmingham, Manchester, Berlin and Hamburg. Today BIMM provides specialist, vocation oriented higher education to over 6,500 students combining their musical skills with the education and training needed to achieve their aspirations.

And of course we can't resist a few BIMM facts: former students include George Ezra, Tom Odell and James Bay.

Sovereign continues to partner the management team to develop BIMMs offering.


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IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Sovereign’s roll-out and acquisition support has enabled excellent growth, which has resulted in student intake and the significant development in the breadth of courses we offer. We are confident that the demand for our unique educational offer will increase further.

Adam Carswell / MD / BIMM Institute