DFM-listed Amanat to soon decide on IPO for its education platform
Investment firm Amanat moves closer to floating its education focused division
Dubai: Will there soon be a third IPO in the UAE from an education focused entity?
DFM-listed investment firm Amanat has scheduled a meeting of its board of directors to look at the possibility of floating the ‘Amanat Education Platform’. The company had spoken about such an IPO for its education-related assets, and based on the latest announcement clearly sees value in going ahead with it.
Already this year, Abu Dhabi based Alef Education – an edtech firm - had taken the IPO route and a listing on ADX. Last year, the schools operator Taaleem had its own successful listing on the DFM.
Amanat principally invests in two key sectors, healthcare and education, and both primed for singular growth in the UAE and other Gulf markets.
On its website, the company says: “The UAE is rapidly strengthening its position as an international higher education hub, as testified by the material increase in international students witnessed in our higher education portfolio.
“In recent years, an increasingly conducive and supportive operating environment, coupled with the region’s solid demographic profile, has enabled the GCC’s higher education sector to be an attractive opportunity for regional and global investors.”
Its education assets include stakes in Middlesex University Dubai and North London Collegiate School Dubai, while in late 2022, it bought a sizeable stake in Saudi Arabia’s Human development Company. The latter is a provider of special care and rehab services in the Kingdom.