When Someone ‘Buys a School,’ What Are They Actually Buying?

When Nord Anglia acquired Oakridge in India, what did it actually buy?

The familiar version is simple: Nord Anglia bought five Oakridge schools.

The filed accounts are more precise.

Nord Anglia’s 2020 accounts record that, on 18 February 2019, the group acquired 100% of People Combine Business Initiatives Private Limited, covering five Oakridge schools—two in Hyderabad and one each in Bengaluru, Visakhapatnam and Mohali.^[1]

That company was subsequently renamed Nord Anglia Education India Private Limited.^[3]

That distinction may sound technical. I think it is the whole point.

The schools parents recognise and the company whose shares were acquired are not necessarily the same legal thing.

A company, a school and a society are different layers

The Nord Anglia filings describe the Indian schools as being licensed through nonprofit educational societies.^[1][2]

They also describe service agreements connecting those schools or societies with group-owned companies, and contractual arrangements concerning the appointment and removal of society members.^[1]

Those relationships help explain why the Indian schools appear inside Nord Anglia’s consolidated financial statements.

But accounting consolidation is not the same as ordinary share ownership.

The 2024 accounts say explicitly that the group “does not have direct legal ownership” of the Indian schools.^[2]

So three different questions sit inside the phrase “owns the school”:

Oakridge shows why all three matter.

A company can be wholly acquired while the school licence remains with a nonprofit society. A school can be consolidated for accounting because of contractual and governance arrangements without the society becoming an ordinary equity subsidiary.

That is much more useful than asking only: “Who owns Oakridge?”

There can be an infrastructure layer too

A November 2025 Income Tax Appellate Tribunal order describes Nord Anglia Education Infrastructure Private Limited providing educational infrastructure through leases alongside services such as transport, security and housekeeping.^[4]

That shows another function that can sit outside both the school society and the company acquired in the headline transaction.

But the order concerns historical assessment years, including periods before the 2019 acquisition. It does not establish the current title to every Oakridge campus or prove that every infrastructure asset formed part of the 2019 transaction.^[4]

So the structure is not simply:

Nord Anglia → owns everything → school

It is closer to:

Nord Anglia → acquired shares in a company

while nonprofit societies → hold the school institutions, with contracts and governance arrangements → connecting parts of the structure.

Infrastructure is a separate documented layer where the records support it.

HDFC gives us the same reading rule

In October 2024, HDFC Bank approved the sale of its entire stake in HDFC Education and Development Services Private Limited to Vama Sundari Investments (Delhi) Private Limited for ₹192 crore.^[5]

Again, the filing identifies the object of the transaction precisely: shares in an education-services company.

That is more informative than saying “the schools were sold”.

What about the nonprofit question?

If a nonprofit society holds the school licence, accounting consolidation does not turn it into a normal share-owned subsidiary. Nor does a services agreement create unrestricted entitlement to school funds.

The institution remains subject to the rules applicable to it.

For example, CBSE’s Chapter 6 rules address use of school income, diversion of funds and separate accounts for CBSE-affiliated schools.^[6] Other schools may sit under different board, state and institutional requirements.

So a commercial company, lease or management agreement is not by itself evidence of either compliance or breach.

Five questions for the next acquisition headline

The next time someone says a school has been bought, I would ask:

1. Which company’s shares—or which assets—actually changed hands?

2. Which entity continues to hold and operate the school institution?

3. What contractual or governance rights changed?

4. Where do the land and infrastructure arrangements sit?

5. Which rights and obligations did not move at all?

To understand a school acquisition, first identify the entities, assets and rights that actually change hands.

Then we can ask the next question:

Why is a Good School Not Automatically a Scalable School.