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What is the true cost of the UK state pension?

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Washington Post Arm Eyes UK Education Giant

(c) Sky News 2013

A division of the company which until last month housed The Washington Post newspaper is preparing a swoop for one of the UK's biggest privately-owned education providers.

Sky News understands that Kaplan, which owns ten English language schools in the UK, is among a group of bidders trying to gain control of Cambridge Education Group (CEG).

CEG, which focuses on pre-university teaching, has been put up for sale by Palamon Capital Partners, its private equity owner, as it seeks to cash in on soaring demand for English language education.

The company, established in 1952, provides training and university foundation courses for overseas students at its schools in London and around England. Its brands include CATS College, FoundationCampus and Stafford School of English, and it also operates in Boston, Massachusetts.

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Kaplan's interest in buying CEG is significant because if successful, it would be the biggest strategic move by The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO - news) since selling its eponymous newspaper title to Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com (NasdaqGS: AMZN - news) founder, in October.

The US media and publishing group has been affected by weaker student demand for its education services, and said in its most recent earnings statement: "Restructuring costs totaled $18.3m in the first nine months of 2013."

It added: "In conjunction with completing these restructuring plans at Kaplan Higher Education (KHE) and Kaplan International, Kaplan currently plans to incur approximately $5m in additional restructuring costs for the remainder of 2013. Kaplan may also incur additional restructuring charges in 2013 as Kaplan management continues to evaluate its cost structure."

The other bidders for CEG are understood to include Berkshire Partners, Bridgepoint, European Capital and Warburg Pincus, a quartet of private equity firms.

A winning bidder for CEG is likely to emerge by the end of the year, according to sources close to the process, which is being run by DC Advisory Partners.

Kaplan was unavailable for comment.