Dubai School Fees: GEMS Billionaire Sunny Varkey Profits as Expats Pay $30,000 - Bloomberg
At GEMS World Academy in Dubai, kindergarteners have access to iPads and students spend time at the school’s 70-seat planetarium. That all comes at a cost — fees that can rise to $33,000 by grade 12.
It’s the most expensive in the chain run by Dubai’s GEMS Education, which is among the world’s largest private school operators. Founded by Indian-born billionaire Sunny Varkey, GEMS caters to every price point, starting at as little as $3,900 a year. But a boom in the emirate’s financial sector has meant Dubai is home to a growing population of hedge fund traders and bankers willing to fork out premium prices.
Private schools are big business across the globe — and they tend to be pricey in most major hubs. In the UK, for instance, Nord Anglia Education Ltd. has been looking to sell a stake at a $15 billion valuation. But Dubai is more lucrative than its peers because local rules make the city’s public schools largely inaccessible to most expatriates.
That translates into big money in Dubai, where about 90% of the population of 3.6 million is from overseas, giving businesses unparalleled opportunity to profit from the education system. Foreigners from every part of the world — from the US and UK to Russia and India — have been pouring in since the pandemic, attracted by the city’s safety and low-tax regime. The government expects the population to surge to 5.8 million by 2040.
For GEMS, this means demand is running so high that it’s drawn up plans to add 30,000 new school places, Chief Executive Officer Dino Varkey, the founder’s son, said in an interview at the company’s headquarters.
This June, the Varkeys raised more than $3 billion from local banks to recapitalize the business while Brookfield Asset Management and co-investors committed $2 billion to GEMS. The family is now estimated to control a $3.7 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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