Clinton Pitches KKR-Backed College Chain Amid Controversy

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-06/clinton-pitches-kkr-backed-college-chain-amid-controversy.html

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Largest Company

It has 800,000 students, up from 243,000 seven years ago, making it America’s largest for-profit college company by enrollment. Since going private in 2007, Laureate’s annual revenue has more than tripled to $4 billion.

Though Laureate isn’t well-known in the U.S., it employs one of the country’s most recognizable figures: former President Bill Clinton. In 2010, the company hired Clinton to serve as its honorary chancellor. In this paid position, Clinton has trekked to Laureate’s campuses in countries such as Malaysia, Peru and Spain, making more than a dozen appearances on its behalf.

Laureate is backed by several of the biggest names in finance, including Henry Kravis, George Soros, Steve Cohen and Paul Allen. When Laureate’s founder and chief executive officer, Doug Becker, convinced these investors’ firms to take his company private in a deal worth $3.8 billion, Kravis’s firm, KKR & Co., took a $487.5 million stake.

By 2010, according to a KKR memo to investors, its investment had increased in value to $710.8 million.