Dubai’s Amanat has bought a 16 percent stake in the owner of Taaleem, which runs four nurseries and seven schools in the UAE.
In a statement to the Dubai bourse, Amanat said it had paid $40 million for the stake in Madaares, which makes it one of the latter’s five largest shareholders.
The schools run under the Taaleem brand have a combined student enrolment of 6,900.
“The private K-12 education sector in the UAE is expected to grow annually by 9 percent through to 2020 and we at Amanat believe strongly in the long-term prospects of Madaares,” said Khaldoun Haj Hasan, the CEO of Amanat, in the bourse statement.
“As a value-added investor, we look to support businesses by working with management to enhance corporate governance, develop a differentiated corporate strategy and identify the most optimal finance structure for the business.
Integrated education and healthcare provider Amanat, which listed in Dubai two years ago, reported a net profit of $13.7 million in its first full year of operations last year.
In August 2015, Amanat acquired a 35 percent equity stake in Saudi-based Sukoon, a closed joint stock company providing extended and specialist healthcare services to patients who are no longer suited for medical care within a traditional hospital setting.
It also paid $68 million for a 4 percent stake in Abu Dhabi’s Al Noor Hospitals Group last May.
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