The parent company of top UK law school BPP looks set to be taken over after a US education provider made a preliminary approach for the company worth £303.5m.

BPP Holdings today (29 April) made a stock exchange announcement confirming a preliminary approach for the education and training business by Apollo Global.

Apollo Global – a joint venture owned by US education provider Apollo Group and private equity house Carlyle Group – has made a cash offer of 620p per share, representing a 70% premium on BPP's closing price on Tuesday (28 April).

In a statement, BPP said: "The board of BPP believes that the company has a strong future as an independent business. However, the board recognises that, due to the cash nature and premium of the potential offer, it is in shareholders' interests to facilitate further discussions with Apollo Global."

BPP is one of the leading professional services training providers in the UK responsible for training accountants, tax practitioners, lawyers, insolvency practitioners, actuaries, financial services professionals, and marketing practitioners.

BPP's legal education business is generally regarded, along with the College of Law, as the UK's top provider of vocational education to lawyers.

Macfarlanes and Eversheds have taken the headline roles on the offer, advising BPP and Apollo respectively. The team from Eversheds is understood to be headed up by corporate partners Neil Matthews and Stephen Nash.

The fate of the bid will be closely watched by UK lawyers given BPP's status as one of the most influential players in the legal education sphere. BPP is sole supplier to the so-called City LPC consortium, acting as exclusive LPC provider to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith, Lovells, Norton Rose and Slaughter and May.

In addition to providing LPC training for a host of major UK law firms and aspiring barristers, BPP hit the headlines in 2007 when it became the first for-profit education provider to be given the power to award degrees.

College of Law chief executive Nigel Savage commented: "This is in entirely predictable in the sense that I think BPP has been preparing itself for a takeover for some time. It is a very attractive offer but it could destabilise the business in the medium to short term. One issue that may arise is that US management culture has never really got to grips with the UK market – Kaplan is yet to cover itself in glory."

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