Leases

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Laureate conducts a significant portion of its operations at leased facilities, including many of Laureate's higher education facilities and other office locations. Laureate analyzes each lease agreement to determine whether it should be classified as a finance lease or an operating lease.

Finance Leases

Our finance lease agreements are for property and equipment. The lease assets are included within buildings as well as furniture, equipment and software and the related lease liability is included within debt and finance leases on the consolidated balance sheets.

Operating Leases

Our operating lease agreements are primarily for real estate space and are included within operating lease ROU assets and operating lease liabilities on the Consolidated Balance Sheets. The terms of our operating leases vary and generally contain renewal options. Certain of these operating leases provide for increasing rent over the term of the lease. Laureate also leases certain equipment under noncancellable operating leases, which are typically for terms of 60 months or less.

ROU assets represent our right to use an underlying asset for the lease term and lease liabilities represent our obligation to make lease payments arising from the lease. As discussed in Note 2, Significant Accounting Policies, ROU assets and lease liabilities are recognized at the commencement date of the lease based on the estimated present value of lease payments over the lease term. Our variable lease payments consist of non-lease services related to the lease. Variable lease payments are excluded from the ROU assets and lease liabilities and are recognized in the period in which the obligation for those payments is incurred. As most of our leases do not provide an implicit rate, we use our incremental borrowing rate based on the information available at the commencement date in determining the present value of lease payments. Many of our lessee agreements include options to extend the lease, which we do not include in our minimum lease terms unless they are reasonably certain to be exercised. On occasion, Laureate has entered into sublease agreements for certain leased office space; however, the sublease income from these agreements is immaterial.

Supplemental balance sheet information related to leases as of December 31, 2024 and 2023 was as follows:


Leases	Classification	2024		2023
Assets:
Operating	Operating lease right-of-use assets, net	$	292,387	$	371,611
Finance	Buildings, Furniture, equipment and software, net	36,513		47,604
Total leased assets		$	328,900	$	419,215

Liabilities:
Current
Operating	Current portion of operating leases	$	48,170	$	57,514
Finance	Current portion of long-term debt and finance leases	7,258		6,742
Non-current
Operating	Long-term operating leases, less current portion	278,957		360,120
Finance	Long-term debt and finance leases, less current portion	41,137		50,826
Total lease liabilities		$	375,522	$	475,202


Lease Term and Discount Rate	2024		2023		2022
Weighted average remaining lease terms
Operating leases	8.2 years		8.6 years		9.4 years
Finance leases	13.2 years		13.7 years		14.6 years

Weighted average discount rate
Operating leases	9.00	%	9.50	%	9.40	%
Finance leases	10.10	%	10.70	%	9.90	%

The components of lease cost for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022 were as follows:


Lease Cost	Classification	2024		2023		2022
Operating lease cost	Direct costs	$	64,934	$	62,904	$	58,701
Finance lease cost
Amortization of leased assets	Direct costs	10,918		10,130		6,821
Interest on leased assets	Interest expense	5,461		5,670		3,990
Short-term lease costs	Direct costs	1,407		1,242		1,055
Variable lease costs	Direct costs	15,241		13,165		9,806
Sublease income	Revenues	(1,173)		(934)		(425)
Total lease cost		$	96,788	$	92,177	$	79,948

As of December 31, 2024, maturities of lease liabilities were as follows:


Maturity of Lease Liability	Operating Leases		Finance Leases
Year 1	$	86,505	$	11,512
Year 2	78,089		8,391
Year 3	66,779		6,827
Year 4	47,483		4,390
Year 5	40,572		4,455
Thereafter	162,972		70,764
Total lease payments	$	482,400	$	106,339
Less: interest and inflation	(155,273)		(57,944)
Present value of lease liabilities	$	327,127	$	48,395

Supplemental cash flow information related to leases for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022 was as follows:


Other Information	2024		2023		2022
Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of lease liabilities
Operating cash flows used for operating leases	$	62,682	$	63,959	$	56,540
Operating cash flows used for finance leases	$	5,461	$	5,670	$	3,990
Financing cash flows used for finance leases	$	8,527	$	6,905	$	5,136
Leased assets obtained for new finance lease liabilities	$	7,001	$	13,034	$	5,226
Leased assets obtained for new operating lease liabilities	$	13,793	$	20,920	$	12,677

Leases