Pathways School, Gurgaon, one of India’s prominent IB schools, is in the process of being acquired by KKR-backed Lighthouse Learning Group, formerly EuroKids International, for about Rs 1,500 crore. It is being counted among the largest transactions yet in India’s school education sector.Pathway Gurgaon is a single campus spread across 10 acres with 4.5 lakh sq ft of built-up space, 1,600 students, and an average annual fee of nearly Rs 10 lakh. The school’s EBITDA is estimated at Rs 110 crore. After negotiations, the deal was reportedly sealed at around 13 times the Estimated Value/EBITDA. In doing so, Pathways may have set not merely a price for one campus, but a benchmark for how investors are beginning to value premium K-12 education in India. Lighthouse Learning also acquired Heritage Xperiential Schools Gurgoan in 2023. Lighthouse Learning recently “partnered” with Early Learning Village, a Gurugram-based early years institution.“The striking feature of this deal is that this is a school that was set up as a company, not a trust or society as most schools in India are. That is probably why the owner could make such a large ask,” said a source.Sarla Holdings runs schools under the Pathways brand, and the present deal involves one of the schools held by one of the three promoter brothers. What gets ‘transacted’ is the EBITDA of the school operations. “And to sustain or improve EBITDA, new owners may reduce operating costs, increase rentals, introduce differentiated fees and fee hikes,” said an industry insider.