Private equity investors weigh exit from UAE school operator GEMS

A group of private equity investors, including Fajr Capital, Blackstone and Bahrain’s Mumtalakat, is weighing the sale of their combined stake in the emerging market business of UAE-based GEMS Education, three sources said.

The consortium has held preliminary talks with investors about an outright sale of the more than 20 percent stake after GEMS shelved its plan to list the schools operator in London, which deprived them of an exit in their more than four-year old investment, the sources familiar with the talks said.