Amanat Holdings, a Dubai-headquartered health and education sectors speciality investment firm, is spending Dh320.4 million for a 35 per cent stake in Abu Dhabi University Holding Company (ADUHC) as it builds its portfolio in the domestic market.
The company, which predominantly invests in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the two biggest Arabian Gulf economies, said the deal is in line with the company’s growth strategy and gives it access to a market leader operating in the private higher education, vocational and corporate training sectors.
“This move complements our K-12 platform, and confirms Amanat’s emphasis on the growing GCC education sector …. [through] complementary portfolio of quality institutions,” Hamad Al Shamsi, the chairman of Amanat, said in a statement on Tuesday. “We are committed to investing in the things that we believe matter most which are healthcare and education.”
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ADUHC, which has operations in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, has recently expanded to Dubai and Al Dhafra region. The group operates a number of subsidiaries that service the group’s entities in real estate, facility management, human resources and project and event management sectors, according to the statement.
The company in December, increased its stake in UAE's K-12 primary and secondary education operator, Taaleem Holdings, to 21.7 per cent, becoming its largest investor.
Amanat, which holds healthcare sector investments in Saudi Arabia, in February posted a 10 per cent increase in full-year 2017 net profit, boosted by income from associated businesses.
Net income for the period rose to Dh42.3 million, while its revenue grew 6 per cent year-on-year to Dh89.5m. Excluding a one-off charge, income from Amanat's associate businesses rose 65 per cent to Dh33.3m, it said at the time.
The portfolio companies of Amanat Holdings are getting closer to being ready for initial public offerings and may seek listings on regional stock exchanges within two to four years, company officials told The National in October.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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