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Leapfrog sells seven sites for leasing back

The UK's largest nursery chain, Leapfrog Day Nurseries, has signed a 12.5m sale-and-leaseback deal with the PINE Fund on seven of its nurseries. The transaction will release money for Leapfrog to pay back debts of 10m ahead of schedule and invest in further projects.
The UK's largest nursery chain, Leapfrog Day Nurseries, has signed a Pounds 12.5m sale-and-leaseback deal with the PINE Fund on seven of its nurseries.

The transaction will release money for Leapfrog to pay back debts of 10m ahead of schedule and invest in further projects.

Andrew Fitzmaurice, chief executive of Nord Anglia Education, which owns Leapfrog, said, 'We looked long and hard at the best way to meet the group's debt repayment obligations. I am pleased that we have found a deal which achieves this without diluting the group's opportunities going forward.'

The PINE Fund, a Jersey-based unit trust, was set up last year by the Nexus Group and partners Alan Proto and Harry Hyman. The company buys freeholds and leaseholds of day nurseries and then immediately rents them back to the operator. In this case, the Leapfrog nurseries will work to 25-year leases.

The seven nurseries are located in York, Bicester in Oxfordshire, Thurrock in Essex, Enfield and Mill Hill in London, Chandlers Ford in Hampshire, and Emersons Green near Bristol.