PADI will be sold for over $700m?!

Diving media from around the world are reporting that the sale of PADI is due to take place within days. Thus confirming the information we reported at the beginning of February, when we wrote about the case for the first time. According to preliminary data, the current owner Providence Equity Partners LLC, will sell its shares for more than $700 million!

So the sale of the largest organisation for the concentration and training of divers (recently PADI celebrated the issuance of 25 million certificates) is slowly becoming a fact. The new owner of PADI is to be a consortium that is leading the purchase of the organisation through an entity called Mandarinfish Holding.

-- Advertisement --

The Professional Association of Diving Instructors was founded in 1966. It was founded by John Cronin and Ralph Erickson, whose aim was to raise standards and make diving more accessible by organising appropriate courses and training. Today, PADI is the leading organisation training divers and setting the standards for recreational diving.

Providence acquired a majority stake in PADI from Lincolnshire Management in 2015. At the time, it focused the organisation’s efforts on developing markets in Asia, with a particular focus on Indonesia and Malaysia. In an era of massive capital investment by investors from China or Indonesia, this play could prove crucial in the search for a potential buyer.

Source: www.wsj.com