Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (‘Freshfields’) is advising CVC Capital Partners (‘CVC’), one of the world’s leading private equity and investment advisory firms, on the acquisition by CVC Fund VI of QA Group (‘QA’) from funds managed by Bregal Capital LLP and advised by EMK Capital LLP. QA’s existing management team will retain a significant stake in QA. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
 
Founded in 1987 and headquartered in London, QA is the UK’s leading provider of IT education and skills.  QA assists more than 5,000 corporate and public sector clients meet their increasing IT and business skills requirements. QA operates across a number of verticals: QA Learning, its professional training business; QA Apprenticeships, its work-based apprenticeship business; QA Consulting, its technology skills solutions business; and QA Higher Education, providing undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.
 
The Freshfields team was led by corporate partners Tim Wilmot and Charles Hayes, with support from partners Alex Mitchell, Denise Ryan, Jill Gatehouse, Alice Greenwell and Andrew Craig.