CIRA + Elsewedy joint venture teams up with SFE to build schools in Cosmic Village
Two new schools will be set up in the Sixth of October’s Cosmic Village under a private-public partnership Cairo Egypt for Education (CEE, a joint venture of CIRA and Elsewedy Capital) and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (SFE), CIRA (pdf) and the Planning Ministry said in statements over the weekend. The partnership will see EGP 350 mn invested in the project, which will set up a branch of Futures Tech (a branded K-12 school that caters to Egypt’s middle-income segment) and another branch of Regent British School (a mid-tuition range international school that made its debut in New Mansoura last year).
Public-private partnerships in large-scale education investment vehicles are on the up this year: CIRA was among the first to hop on the bandwagon when it announced it was starting a new company with Al Ahly Capital Holding to invest in middle-income education providers. The EGX-listed private education outfit is also separately setting up a EGP 2.5 bn private university in New Damietta through a new joint venture with Elsewedy Capital.
And the SFE has been getting in on the education market: The nation’s sovereign fund was among the backers to make a commitment to Lighthouse Education, an education investment vehicle established last summer which raised EGP 560 mn in its first close. Misr Ins. Holding, Banque Misr, and Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Investment Holding Company also made contributions.
Want more? Check out our Blackboard issue on how the nation is increasingly turning to large-scale public-private investment platforms to drive much-needed investment in new classrooms.