GEMS Education plans $300 million investment to boost UAE growth

Abu Dhabi: 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. GEMS is betting big on UAE’s population growth and an inflow of wealthy individuals.

Moreover, the international education provider aims to increase its student headcount by 30,000 to 35,000 by 2028, CEO Dino Varkey said on the sidelines of a conference in Abu Dhabi.

He cited demand from people who relocated to Dubai from the East and the West.

In the United Kingdom, the imposition of VAT on private school fees and the scrapping of non-domiciled status have 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 backed local businesses in the Gulf. Earlier this year, GEMS Education launched the GEMS School of Research and Innovation, which is claimed to be the most innovative and premium school in Dubai.

Set to open in August this year, the yearly fees will eventually range from Dh116,000 for Foundation 1 to Dh206,000 for Year 13. The annual fees for Year 6 will be Dh152,000, Maryssa O’Connor, Vice-President of Education, GEMS Education, told Gulf News in an earlier interview.