Beaton, the founder and chief executive of Crimson, told the Herald this afternoon: “Crimson is very excited to partner up with Kip McGrath.”
“Now that Kip McGrath has retired and the business is looking at a future landscape where tutoring is rapidly changing,” he said, “we believe Crimson’s in a good position to enhance it with our skills in AI and our global distribution. And we feel like we can be really awesome stewards of the business for the next generation.”
In a statement, Kip McGrath chairman Damian Banks acknowledged the offer and said the board was reviewing it.
Banks said the approach was unsolicited, and there was no need for shareholders to accept or reject the offer at this stage.
Kip McGrath founded the company bearing his name in 1976, before retiring in 2019. Today the firm has more than 500 tutoring centre franchises around the world and had its shares listed on the ASX in 2003.
Beaton and Crimson have enjoyed a meteoric rise since the then-Auckland teenager founded his educational cramming consultancy in 2013.
Today the company operates internationally, earns hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues and is chaired by former Prime Minister Sir John Key.
The play for Kip McGrath is understood to be Crimson’s largest acquisition target to date, after the company has over the past decade rolled up a number of smaller local and international tutoring businesses.
The takeover offer is expected to be considered by Kip McGrath shareholders over the coming weeks.
Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism – including twice being named Reporter of the Year – and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting for business newspapers and national magazines.
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