Dubai-based GEMS Education plans to spend around $300 million over the next two-to-three years to increase organic growth, its CEO told Reuters, as it bets on population growth and an inflow of wealthy individuals.
Dubai is one of the world’s fastest-growing cities whose population has been swollen by foreigners, particularly higher-income earners, attracted by the tax policies, the ease of doing business and a convenient time zone.
The international education provider aims to increase its student headcount by 30,000 to 35,000 by 2028, CEO Dino Varkey said Thursday on the sidelines of a conference in Abu Dhabi.
He cited demand from people who have relocated to Dubai from both the East and the West
In the United Kingdom, the imposition of VAT on private school fees and the scrapping of non-domiciled status has led some millionaires to move to the UAE.
“Certainly, what we’re probably seeing right now is, given the nature of some of the tax reforms going on in parts of the UK and other parts of Western Europe, you are seeing perhaps a higher proportion of families choosing to relocate to the UAE from those parts of the world,” Varkey said.
Last year, a consortium led by Brookfield Asset Management invested in the school operator, as more private equity firms back local businesses in the Gulf.
GEMS, which is set to open a school in August whose annual tuition fees could reach as much as $56,000 in the future, will also consider acquisitions, Varkey said.
A family business, GEMS Education has grown from a single school in 1959 to educating 170,000 students from over 176 countries.
($1 = 3.6725 UAE dirham)
(Reporting by Federico Maccioni and Abinaya Vijayaraghavan; editing by Barbara Lewis)
