As a pension plan, we believe one of the best ways to ensure
steady returns over decades is to invest in the well-being and
education of the next generation. In 2013, Ontario
Teachers Pension Plan purchased a majority stake in busy Bees, a
UK based early education provider. We were not only
interested in the enormous growth potential of the
business, but also in the relentless focus on safety and
quality exhibited in the company's many years of
excellent service. But what does it really take to bring a proven
company to the global stage?
We were really looking for a part that could provide us with
security of long term capital so that we could pursue our
ambition to give every child the best start in life. It takes an
investment partner that puts quality first. It was really
important that we were aligned with anybody who was going to
have a partnership with the company. We'd had some bad
experiences and we really wanted this to be right.
We really wanted somebody that had a sense of social good as
well as a sense of building returns for stakeholders,
teachers take to all of those boxes and a relationship that
helps you take capital further in terms of internationalizing
and making our first acquisition in Singapore. The teacher side
work right there alongside me. We carried out the diligence as
a team between the shareholders and the the senior management
team.