EFG Hermes announced on Sunday that it is entering into an exclusive partnership with Global Education Management Systems (GEMS Education), one of the world's leading providers of private English-language education for students from kindergarten to 12th grade (K-12), to jointly establish a new platform focused on Egypt's K-12 education sector. The new platform aims to establish a sizeable portfolio of private national and international schools across key cities in Egypt over the next five years via a mix of acquisitions, brownfield, and greenfield investments, which will be exclusively operated by GEMS Education. "Our 50-50 joint venture with GEMS Education will offer our investors unique access to Egypt—MENA's largest education market with over 20 million enrolled students. We see a substantial opportunity to create value while making a sustainable social impact on future generations," said Karim Moussa, head of asset management and private equity at EFG Hermes. He added that EFG Hermes will target replicating GEMS Education's success in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the highly underserved education sector in Egypt. "Egypt has the largest education system in the MENA region, in terms of student population. We are excited to be able to provide educational choices for families in Egypt, which are underpinned by the expertise that GEMS has developed over the last 50 years," said Dino Varkey, the CEO of GEMS Education.
