Dubai’s GEMS Education secures $3.25bn new financing facility

Dubai’s GEMS Education secured a new sustainability-linked financing facility from a consortium of local lenders.

The facility, along with the investment from a consortium of regional and international investors led by Brookfield Asset Management, has enabled GEMS to refinance its existing debt and buy out the majority of the minority shareholders.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), Mashreq Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and First Abu Dhabi Bank acted as underwriters on the financing facility.

“DIB’s pivotal role in putting this deal together over a period of several months highlights the depth of its relationship with key clients like GEMS and its ability to bring in and manage multiple stakeholders in what has been a very complex transaction,” said Dr. Adnan Chilwan, the banking group CEO.

Meanwhile, the Brookfield consortium’s investment is expected to be completed in Q3 2024, subject to conditions. Other investors in the deal include Dubai-based Gulf Islamic Investments, Marathon Asset Management and the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

GEMS has grown from a single school, following the arrival of the founding family as teachers in Dubai in 1959, to become one of the world’s largest providers of private K-12 education, educating 140,000 students.

The private education provider offers various international school curricula across multiple price points, with adjacent services, including school transportation and after-school activities.

The investment will allow CVC Capital Partners to substantially exit its GEMS stake five years after it bought into the firm in a deal that marked its first private equity foray in the Gulf.

Separately, GEMS said it had secured funds from a group of UAE banks to finance the transaction, including for the repayment of the firms’ existing arrangements.

Brookfield invested through its special investments and Middle East private equity programs.

GEMS Education was advised by deNovo Partners – a Dubai-based boutique founded by former Morgan Stanley banker May Nasrallah – and Goldman Sachs Group.

Read: Brookfield-led consortium agrees to invest in Dubai’s GEMS Education