Bulgarian investment company Invenio Partners and Vienna-based Accession Capital Partners have acquired the vocational education unit of Serbia's Link Group and plan to use it to build a leading provider of IT and business professional education in Southeast Europe, Invenio Partners said in a press release on November 7. It did not disclose the value of the acquisition.

Invenio and ACP will support Link’s leadership team to expand the company’s geographic footprint. They will also help the company develop its product offering to meet the constantly growing need for upskilling of young professionals while introducing new programmes to meet the dynamic requirements of the B2B segment.

“This investment represents a significant milestone for Invenio and fully exemplifies our dedication to invest in and support the continued growth of successful regional endeavours,” Invenio partner and CIO Tihomir Dyankov said in the press release.

Link Group’s vocational division educates 6,000 students per year in the B2C segment in Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Romania and Moldova. The group also provides distance learning courses and has schools in Romania and Bosnia, as well as offices in Serbia, Moldova and Ukraine.

“We are very impressed with what the LINK team have achieved and can see it has further to go. We believe this investment and our partnership with Invenio will help LINK become the leading provider of IT and business professional education in Southeastern Europe and we look forward to working together on this journey,” said Marko Mitrovic, head of Western Balkans at Accession Capital Partners. 

Invenio’s advisers on the transaction were Advokati and Dentons Reczicza Law Firm. ACP were advised by Schoenherr and Norton Rose Fulbright. KPMG Serbia led the financial and tax analysis. Deloitte Serbia was Link Group’s provider of legal, financial and tax advice.