The Wall Street Journal on March 21 reported that Providence Equity, which has owned PADI, the world’s largest scuba-certifying agency, since 2015 has sold the company. PADI sold for an estimated $700 million USD. This amounts to a more-than-tripled initial investment over those few years.

It is understood that PADI sold to consortium, which purchased the agency via a holding company called Mandarinfish Holding. The Wall Street Journal reported that the interested buyers were drawn by PADI’s efforts to promote marine conservation, a point one could argue that PADI does not do enough of, but that’s another story all together.

There was a report back in November 2016 in Bloomberg that Providence Equity was looking to sell PADI with an estimated valuation of the business at around 1 billion.