A private equity firm has bought a provider of educational travel services for British schoolchildren in an eight figure deal.

A private equity firm has bought a provider of educational travel services for British schoolchildren in an eight figure deal.

DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, an investment arm of financial services giant Credit Suisse, has bought Education & Adventure Travel (EAT), which arranges activity and adventure breaks as well as educational tours and ski trips for more than 200,000 students each year.

EAT was sold by Bowmark Capital for £100 million, less than a year after it created the business through merging the School Travel Group (STG) and Kingswood Educational Group.

STG was bought by Bowmark in 2004 and soon started a series of acquisitions by adding tour operator School Travel Service to its portfolio. It has made four further bolt-on deals, including Equity Travel in 2005 and Kuoni Student Travel last year.

Kingswood, which joined Bowmark’s stable in 2005, is a residential education and adventure activity business. It has nine sites around the UK and has recently expanded into France.