Madaares – the Dubai-based AED500m (US$136m) private joint stock company – is in “advanced talks” to acquire a leading British schools operator,
Arabian Business
can reveal.
The investment group, launched by the UAE’s National Bonds Corporation (NBC), is also on the verge of acquiring two Emirati school operators.
Nasser Al-Shaikh, vice president and CEO of NBC told us: “We are in advanced talks to buy out a leading UK educational operator that owns a collection of schools [and] has been in the field for more than 20 years. It is at a very advanced stage and we are very hopeful that it will be a successful deal.
“We are also in advanced [acquisition] talks with two education operators from within the UAE,” he added.
Madaares is 20% owned by NBC while the remaining shares are held by strategic institutional investors including Emirates Islamic Bank, Amlak Finance, Zabeel Investments and Global Investment House.
Aimed at boosting the quality of education in the MENA, the company is currently negotiating deals with a number of property developers in the region to meet its target of building 20 schools by 2014.
“We are talking to the master property developers in the [Gulf] countries. Our aim is to become one of the key players in the education sector in the MENA region,” said Al-Shaikh.
The investment group hopes to launch 14 new schools over the next five years initially in the UAE and then across the MENA.
According to Al-Shaikh, Madaares will build on the “technical knowledge” of international educational operators: “Madaares will make use of its resources, expertise, and relations in building strong fundamentals among the youth in the region. Our plan of action is to build and manage schools that offer rigorous curricula, modern facilities and convenient locations,” he added.
NBC is a Sharia-compliant private shareholding company based in Dubai that is joint owned by Dubai Bank, Dubai Holding and Emaar Properties.
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