Inflexion is weighing a sale of UK publisher and data insights firm Times Higher Education (THE), according to sources familiar with the matter.

The private equity firm is in the early stages of exploring an exit of the London-headquartered firm which provides university data, rankings and content, the sources said.

Times Higher Education is expected to be marketed off FY 24 EBITDA in the region of GBP 15-20m, according to one of the sources. It was expected to generate roughly GBP 60m in revenue in 2023, its CEO Paul Howarth told Mergermarket in May last year.

THE was acquired by Inflexion in 2019 after being carved out of TES Global. Onex Partners-backed TES Global is also said to separately be exploring a minority stake sale.

Under Inflexion’s ownership, THE has made five acquisitions including California-headquartered Poets&Quants in April 2023.

The company, which is also behind the annual Times Higher Education World University Rankings, says it has the largest community of academics in the world, attracting north of 50 million unique visitors to its websites every year.

Representatives for Inflexion and Times Higher Education declined to comment.