Indian education solutions provider CORE Projects & Technologies has acquired UK education recruiter ITN Mark Education for around $25m (£15.4m), through its subsidiary Core Education and Consulting Solutions (UK).

CORE Group, chairman and global chief executive, Sanjeev Mansotra, says: “ITN Mark contributes towards the ultimate goal of making teaching globally competitive in each and every sector. ITN is already focused on imparting industry-relevant training to the teachers. We are sure with this acquisition CORE will scale new peaks in its mission to take education to its next dimension.”

ITN Mark was acquired from UK talent management solutions provider Ochre House.

Ochre House group managing director, Chris Herrmannsen, told Recruiter: “The business was bought by a listed company and they had to make a stock exchange announcement last night. There will be a formal announcement later today.

“ITN Mark Education is a specialist education recruitment business. Core Projects, the acquirer of the business, is pretty large multi-national education services business. From that perspective, the team at ITN Mark are delighted to join forces with Core on the basis that their sole focus is education and services around schools and teachers.

“It is an opportunity for ITN Mark to work in an environment that is dedicated to that industry sector. Core has a very large international footprint so they can expand more quickly. They also offer complementary services into recruitment and resourcing, and so can deliver synergies around their education team.

“It does not mean they [ITN Mark] are in any way changing. They will not rebrand their services; they will not effectively change what they are doing.

“Ochre House was formed in 2006 through a management buyout. We acquired a range of subsidiaries. Effectively, we operate in three categories. We had the ITN Mark business dedicated to the public sector and, in particular, education.

“We have the commercial recruitment segment and we have an RPO business. This realigns the Ochre House business around the commercial markets. If you look at the remaining business — Parkside and Ochre House talent management — we are now solely focused around provision of recruitment-related services including talent management and talent outsourcing but particularly around a commercial customer base as opposed to a public sector base.”

Commenting on the deal Tim Evans, managing director at Boxington Corporate Finance, told Recruiter: “It is another positive signal for the return of the M&A market. It is a reminder of the importance of finding both an overseas and potenially non-recruitment buyer to get the best price.”