Buyers want parts of ABC Learning’s failed empire

A not-for-profit childcare chain has emerged as a potential buyer of parts of ABC Learning Centres’ network of 1000 Australian childcare centres, just days after ABC was placed into receivership.

A not-for-profit childcare chain has emerged as a potential buyer of parts of ABC Learning Centres’ network of 1000 Australian childcare centres, just days after ABC was placed into receivership.

Victorian organisation Try Youth and Community Services says it is interested in buying between 20 and 40 of ABC’s centres, mainly in Victoria. It is also interested in taking over ABC’s contract to provide childcare services to the Australian Defence Force.

TYCS’s chief executive Damien Mowlam told The Australian Financial Review that the organsiation is talking with its lender about obtaining $30 million of funding for the purchase. TYCS wants the Government to match that funding to allow it to buy the centres.

On Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard revealed that 40% or 400 of ABC’s centres are unprofitable.

The Federal Government will provide $22 million worth of funding to keep all of ABC’s centres running until 31 December, but the fate of unprofitable centres remains unclear after this date.

Another possible buyer mooted in the press in the last few days is billionaire Paul Ramsay, owner of Ramsay Health Care and Prime Media Group (the largest shareholder in Destra).

Ramsay has been interested in entering the childcare sector for some years and is reportedly following the progress of the ABC rescue closely.

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