The acquirer is DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, part of the Credit Suisse financial services group.

The exit generated a return of more than four times cost, and an IRR of 63 per cent on Bowmark’s total outlay of £18 million.

Bowmark created EAT through the merger of the School Travel Group and Kingswood Educational Group in October 2007. School Travel Group was itself the product of a series of mergers and acquisitions that began in 2004.

EAT chairman Peter Chappelow says the company consolidated several businesses to create a ‘one-stop shop that provides the entire range of educational travel services’.

Mark Slater, senior partner at Bowmark, comments: ‘While the number of operators in the [school travel] sector has undergone considerable consolidation in the past few years, we believe there is more to come.’