Global's private equity funds acquire 70 per cent of Al Rayan Holding Company

The company has successfully increased its paid-up capital from KD1 million to KD15 million primarily to capitalize on the lucrative opportunities available in the education sector in Kuwait.

According to Mr. Omar El-Quqa, EVP at Global Investment House, Al Rayan has plans to expand its operations in Kuwait through acquiring different schools with different curriculums. Al Rayan has a diversified shareholders' base with investors from both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Al Rayan Holding Company is a new Sharia'h compliant educational-specific holding company, which mainly focuses on acquiring different educational institutions and running them with the highest professional standards.

"Al Rayan has already fully acquired two schools to be under its umbrella; the New Pakistan International School (NPIS) and the Kuwait International English School (KIES) with total student strength of around 2,750 students," said Mr. Shailesh Dash, SVP at Global Investment House. "We have partnered with GEMS Education, one of the world's leading providers of private education and the leading education company in the MENASA region. GEMS manages a growing network of over 65 international schools across, 6 countries, with rich and varied curriculum programs. GEMS Schools have a long heritage and an established track record of high performance and excellence," Shailesh added. Al Rayan aims at acquiring 8-10 portfolio schools and is currently at different stages of evaluation for the acquisition of other set of schools with various curriculums.

Mr. Sunny Varkey, Founder & Chairman of GEMS Education has commented on the venture with Global in Al Rayan Holding Co. by saying that,

"We are pleased to have the opportunity to participate in raising the standards of private sector education in Kuwait; this is an area that we have demonstrated significant success in throughout the region."

He added: "GEMS is committed to providing high quality education to students supported by continuous professional development for our highly qualified education professionals. We retain a singular, uncompromising commitment to communities, parents, students and teachers, to prepare the next generation for the challenges of the future", Mr. Varkey added.

GEMS manages a growing network of over 65 international schools around the world and provides high quality education to 70,000 students from 124 nationalities. GEMS employs over 5,800 education professionals, specialists and staff from around the globe. In addition, GEMS provides total solutions in education management from project inception to daily management of schools to ensure optimum efficiency and performance.

Al Rayan has the mission to create an educational infrastructure in Kuwait of highest international standards which will impart the best of knowledge and skills to every young individual to help them develop and nurture their talents to the fullest extent and to contribute in building a "knowledge society" that can help meet the goal of Kuwait of creating a non-oil dependant, diversified economy.

"Al Rayan has acquired the New Pakistan International School which was established in 1997 which had around 500 students, a number which has steadily grown to reach 2,400 students in 2006 from about 29 nationalities. The school follows the Oxford Curriculum from Kindergarten to class 8 and thereafter students can opt either the IGCSE system or the Federal Board of Pakistan for secondary and higher secondary classes. The school is also affiliated with Cambridge University to conduct IGCSE course which enables students to get admission to any university in the world" said Mr. El-Quqa. He also added that, "Recently, Al Rayan has also acquired the Kuwait International English School which was established in 1991 and it offers the British Curriculum to students for all levels. KIES had student strength of 498 in 2005 which has increased to 525 students in 2007 and there is a huge potential for increasing the number of students. In addition, KIES was issued an additional license to offer Special Needs education services".

According to Mr. Dash, "Al Rayan is under different stages of evaluating various opportunities in the education sector in Kuwait as it is currently assessing the opportunity to acquire 5 different schools including some of the top schools in the country."