DUBAI: Dubai-listed Amanat Holdings plans to float a 30% stake in its education business in Riyadh next year and has hired SNB Capital to run the initial public offering (IPO), two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Amanat plans to list the business in the first half of 2025, the sources said, adding that the company was looking to hire more advisers.
The deal could raise as much as $300 million, one of the sources said.
Amanat Holdings and SNB Capital were not immediately available for comment.
The company, which also operates healthcare businesses, had said in July it would proceed with an IPO of its education division.
The business serves around 15,000 students and another 5,000 beneficiaries via three universities, nine schools and 30 daycare and rehab centres, according to the company’s website.
It includes MDX in Dubai, one of the overseas campuses of Middlesex University in London, as well as HDC, which offers special education and care services in Saudi Arabia, and Nema Holding, which provides higher education in Abu Dhabi and through more campuses in Dubai and Al Ain.
Amanat reported a 14% rise in revenues to 566.3 million dirhams ($154.2 million) in the first nine months of the year, with the education business’s revenues up 27% compared with the same period last year, driven by record enrolments at MDX and HDC.
The company’s decision to list the education business adds to a flurry of IPOs in the Gulf as governments seek to diversify their economies and deepen capital markets.
It follows the listings of other education companies such as Emirati schools operator Taaleem Holdings and Abu Dhabi-based Alef Education.
($1 = 3.6728 UAE dirham) (Reporting by Federico Maccioni, editing by Jane Merirman)
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