Bloom Holding is set to announce a deal with a top US education provider to launch a school business offering the International Baccalaureate as part of its diversification strategy.
The Abu Dhabi company’s chief executive, Sameh Muhtadi, added that it is also in the process of finalising agreements that will see it launch a number of healthcare businesses.
“We are diversifying our activities. We believe we can provide a better quality of living to our clients by providing the best education services, healthcare services and facilities management,” said Mr Muhtadi. “It’s complementing the offering we have in real estate and going beyond the residential component.”
He said he expected to finalise a deal with the US education firm, which he declined to name, within the next two weeks.
“But I can tell you it’s one of the best schools in the United States, based out of Manhattan.”
Negotiations are ongoing to acquire the land for the school, which he has said Bloom is targeting to open by September 2017.
“The school will require a lot of facilities and amenities, so finding the appropriate plot of land is going to be key to where we site our first school,” Mr Muhtadi said. “It would be fast track, but we have contractors on board that have committed to completing the school within a year.”
Talks are also under way to acquire a plot of land in Dubai to launch a new English curriculum Brighton College in Dubai, following on from existing schools in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.
In August, Brighton College claimed it had achieved the best results for an English curriculum school in Abu Dhabi, with 52 per cent of its GCSE students achieving an A or A* rating this summer.
In health care, Mr Muhtadi said the company is finalising agreements with one of the top-ranked children’s hospitals in the world and a hospital group related to “a very prestigious university” in the US. It is also developing a polyclinic model – initially for its own communities, but which could be later rolled out across the UAE.
“We are taking it very cautiously. We are doing studies and surveys to identify exactly where the demand gaps are,” Mr Muhtadi said.
The potential for the UAE’s healthcare market come into sharp focus last week following competing bids for Abu Dhabi’s Al Noor Hospitals. It agreed a deal that could see it sold to the South African private healthcare company Mediclinic International for US$2.3bn, but its UAE rival NMC Health has vowed to continue its own bid for the company.
A survey published last year by Alpen Capital estimated that the UAE’s healthcare market is set to grow at an annual rate of 12 per cent to $69.4bn by 2018, up from $39.4bn in 2013. It said all GCC countries face increasing demand for healthcare services due to a rapidly expanding population and a higher prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes. Improvements in health care also mean many more people live to an older age.
The number of people who are 65 or older across the GCC is set to surge from 1.2 million this year to 14.2m by 2050.
Bloom is part of the Abu Dhabi investment group National Holding.
mfahy@thenational.ae
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