GEMS Education
GEMS Education is a trading brand used by a group of private-school and education-services companies whose operational base is in Dubai. It is not the registered name of a single legal person. This Zavia record carries no registration number, no incorporation date and no registry source URL, and checks completed on 8 October 2026 identified no company registered in the United Arab Emirates under the exact name GEMS Education.
Two legal persons whose registered names contain the brand were verified in the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) index. GEMS MENASA (Cayman) Limited is an exempted company registered in the Cayman Islands under number MC-181964 (LEI 213800KB2HCLUSOQ2G49), with a headquarters address at the GEMS Education Building, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai; a prospectus approved by the Dubai Financial Services Authority on 19 November 2013 identifies that company as the entity through which the GEMS Education business operates in the Middle East and Africa. GEMS EDUCATION (DELAWARE) LLC (LEI 2138006I48MNIHASNY12) is a separate Delaware limited liability company, and no evidence was found connecting it to the United Arab Emirates schools business, so this record should not be matched to it. The Dubai city value on this record is consistent with the operating base recorded in the 2013 prospectus, while the stored country code AE does not correspond to a jurisdiction of incorporation for any entity the record can be matched to.
The principal activity is kindergarten-to-Grade-12 (Year 13) private schooling and related services. The 19 November 2013 prospectus sets out three segments: GEMS Schools, which owned and operated 39 K-12 schools in the Middle East and Africa as at 30 September 2013, of which 37 were in the United Arab Emirates and two in East Africa; GEMS Integrated Services, covering student transport, extra-curricular sports training, school camps, after-school music, art and language tuition and teacher training; and EdSol, educational consulting and the management of third-party private schools, which at that date served seven schools in Egypt, Jordan, Libya, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
On its own website, retrieved on 8 October 2026, GEMS Education states that it runs 52 schools across the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Egypt, teaches more than 200,000 students of over 176 nationalities, and employs more than 17,000 people including over 9,200 educators and school leaders. The same website dates the business to 1959. That conflicts with the company’s own listing document, which states that GEMS Education was founded in 1968 and that Sunny Varkey assumed control in 1980; the founding year the group publishes is not the year in its prospectus.
The most recent financial figures available from a primary document that could be opened at source are consolidated figures for the financial year ended 31 March 2013: revenue of US$455.9 million and adjusted EBITDA of US$125.9 million for GEMS MENASA (Cayman) Limited and its subsidiaries, which employed 9,595 staff at that date. These are consolidated group figures, not figures for any single operating company, and no more recent audited accounts are published.
No equity security of the group was found admitted to trading on any exchange. The only GEMS securities confirmed from a primary listing document are US$200,000,000 subordinated perpetual certificates issued on 21 November 2013 by GEMS MEA Sukuk Limited, a Cayman Islands exempted company incorporated on 22 July 2013, which were admitted to the main securities market of the Irish Stock Exchange and to Nasdaq Dubai and carried a profit rate of 12.00 per cent per annum to a first call date of 21 November 2018. Those are debt instruments of a special-purpose issuer. Recurring press reports of a potential initial public offering are not evidence of a completed one, and the 2013 prospectus itself treats an equity offering only as a contingent redemption event.
The status Active shown on this record comes from a commercial data vendor and not from a company register; because no register entry is identified for this name, it is not a register status and should not be read as one. Independent evidence that the business is trading is recent: the group published an announcement on 22 August 2025 recording more than 1,700 teachers joining its schools for the following academic year.
- Company fundamentals
- Corporate linkage & group structures
- Digitized company financials
- Firmographics — websites, social profiles, revenue and employee estimates
Shareholders
Shareholders of GEMS Education
No shareholder register is publicly accessible for any GEMS entity. Mainland United Arab Emirates licensing authorities do not publish shareholder registers for private companies, and the Cayman Islands does not publish the register of members of an exempted company, which is the form of the group holding company identified for this record. Everything below therefore comes from dated official announcements, not from a register, and no stake is shown as a Zavia-verified holding.
The earliest ownership statement that could be opened at source is in the prospectus approved by the Dubai Financial Services Authority on 19 November 2013. It records that the ultimate parent company of GEMS MENASA (Cayman) Limited was then Varkey Group Limited, that the shares in Varkey Group Limited were held on trust by a private trust company for the benefit of the members of the Varkey family, and that the family was consequently in a position to control the outcome of matters requiring shareholder approval. The change-of-control clause in the same document is framed on members of the Varkey Family, taken together, ceasing to control more than 50 per cent of the issued share capital or more than 50 per cent of the voting rights of GEMS MENASA (Cayman) Limited. No split between individual family members was published, and no percentage held by Varkey Group Limited was published.
Three later changes were announced officially. On 10 July 2019 CVC Capital Partners announced that funds it advises led a consortium acquiring approximately a 30 per cent stake in GEMS Education from existing shareholders, a consortium led by Fajr Capital Limited that included Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities funds and Bahrain’s Mumtalakat sovereign wealth fund; the same announcement states that Khazanah Nasional Berhad, which invested in January 2018, retained a 3 per cent stake, and that the Varkey family would remain, in combination, the largest shareholders once the transaction completed. On 18 June 2024 CVC announced that a consortium led by CVC Strategic Opportunities Fund I and Fund II had entered a binding agreement to sell a majority of its stake to a consortium led by Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., that the CVC consortium would retain a stake, that the existing minority shareholders including Khazanah Nasional Berhad would exit, and that completion was expected in the third quarter of 2024. On 17 July 2024 Gulf Islamic Investments announced that its funding arrangements within the Brookfield-led consortium had concluded, and on 22 July 2024 Dubai Islamic Bank announced a US$3.25 billion sustainability-linked facility whose stated purposes included refinancing existing debt and funding the exit of the majority of the minority shareholders’ position.
Two points of substance follow for a counterparty check. First, the instrument involved is not ordinary share capital: the law firm that advised the incoming consortium described the Brookfield-led investment, in a deal note dated 18 July 2024, as a minority preferred equity investment, and described the departing CVC-led group as an existing preferred equity consortium. A preferred equity percentage is not interchangeable with a percentage of ordinary shares. Second, no post-2024 percentage has been published for Brookfield Asset Management, for the Varkey family or for the stake CVC retained, so no current holding is stated here and none is calculated.
Ultimate beneficial ownership
Restricted. Cabinet Decision No. 109 of 2023 on Regulating the Beneficial Owner Procedures requires United Arab Emirates companies to maintain a register of real beneficiaries and to file it with the licensing authority, but that register is kept confidential and is not open to public inspection, so the absence of a published ultimate beneficial owner for GEMS Education is a disclosure rule rather than an absence of beneficial owners. The Cayman Islands beneficial ownership regime is likewise not publicly searchable.
The only officially stated control position for the GEMS group is the 19 November 2013 statement described above, which attributes control to the members of the Varkey family through a private trust company holding the shares in Varkey Group Limited. That statement is now 13 years old and predates two changes of outside investor. No effective ownership percentage is calculated here: the chain above Varkey Group Limited is not disclosed, the trust arrangement does not publish beneficiary shares, and the percentages that are public relate to different dates and to preferred rather than ordinary equity.
Data availability
Restricted. Shareholder and beneficial ownership information for this group exists but is held in registers that are not open to the public in either of the relevant jurisdictions, so only announced transactions can be reported, and the latest of those gives no percentages. Nothing here should be read as evidence that the group has no shareholders or no beneficial owners.
Sources
Dubai Financial Services Authority, approved prospectus for US$200,000,000 Subordinated Perpetual Certificates issued by GEMS MEA Sukuk Limited, dated 19 November 2013, published on dfsa.ae; retrieved 8 October 2026.
CVC Capital Partners, press release: funds advised by CVC Capital Partners lead consortium to acquire significant minority stake in GEMS Education, 10 July 2019, cvc.com; retrieved 8 October 2026.
CVC Capital Partners, press release: CVC Strategic Opportunities agrees partial sale of its investment in GEMS Education, 18 June 2024, cvc.com; retrieved 8 October 2026.
Gulf Islamic Investments, press release: Gulf Islamic Investments finalises investment in GEMS Education, 17 July 2024, gii.ae; retrieved 8 October 2026.
Dubai Islamic Bank, press release: Dubai Islamic Bank leads landmark US$3.25 billion financing transaction for GEMS Education, 22 July 2024, dib.ae; retrieved 8 October 2026.
Linklaters, deal note: Linklaters advises a Brookfield-led consortium on its substantial preferred equity investment in GEMS Education, 18 July 2024, linklaters.com; retrieved 8 October 2026.
Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, Level 1 record for GEMS MENASA (CAYMAN) LIMITED, LEI 213800KB2HCLUSOQ2G49, last updated 17 July 2022; retrieved 8 October 2026.
Officers
Directors and officers of GEMS Education
No officer filing is publicly accessible for any legal person identified behind this record. Mainland United Arab Emirates licensing authorities do not publish director or manager registers for private companies, and the Cayman Islands does not publish the register of directors of an exempted company. The provider note on this page, which says that officer data may be missing because the company is newly incorporated or because a first filing deadline has not passed, does not apply: the business has been operating for decades and the reason no officers appear is that neither relevant jurisdiction publishes them.
The only current-dated source is the group’s own publishing. In an announcement dated 22 August 2025 GEMS Education names Sunny Varkey as Chairman and Founder, Dino Varkey as Group Chief Executive Officer and Lisa Crausby OBE as Group Chief Education Officer. These are group management titles published by the company itself. They are not filed directorships, they are not attached in that source to any named registered company, and Zavia could not check them against a register, so they should be treated as the group’s own statement of its senior management as at that date rather than as officer data.
The last board list that could be opened at source is historical. The prospectus approved by the Dubai Financial Services Authority on 19 November 2013 records the board of directors of GEMS MENASA (Cayman) Limited as Sunny Varkey (Chairman, stated to have been chairman since the company’s incorporation and chairman of the GEMS Education business since 1980), C.N. Radhakrishnan (Director), Dino Varkey (Director and Group Chief Operating Officer), Jay Varkey (Director, with the role described as business development and commercial) and Sherly Varkey (Director, stated to have been a director since 2007). The same document records the group audit committee as having two members, chaired by Saeed Al Muntafiq, with C.N. Radhakrishnan as the other member, and names Nick Guest as Chief Financial Officer, appointed in 2011. None of these appointments can be confirmed as still in force, and none should be presented as current.
The business address given in that document for every member of the board was GEMS Education Offices, Interchange 4, Sheikh Zayed Road, PO Box 8607, Dubai. That is a service and correspondence address for the appointment; it is not a residential address and carries no implication about where any individual lives.
Recent officer changes
Change of published role, Dino Varkey. The 19 November 2013 prospectus records him as Director and Group Chief Operating Officer. The CVC Capital Partners announcement of 10 July 2019 and the company’s own announcement of 22 August 2025 both describe him as the group’s chief executive. No effective date for that change is published in any source reviewed, so it is reported as a change in published title between 19 November 2013 and 10 July 2019 and not as an appointment on a known date.
No appointment, resignation, removal or termination for any GEMS entity could be verified with an effective date, because no register publishes them. No other change is reported here.
Data availability
Not public. Neither the United Arab Emirates licensing authorities nor the Cayman Islands registry publishes director, manager or legal-representative data for the private companies behind this brand, so appointment dates, resignation dates, role histories and corporate-officer status are all unavailable. Nationality is not disclosed by any source reviewed and is not inferred here from any name, title or correspondence address; country of residence is likewise not disclosed. Nothing above should be read as evidence that the companies behind GEMS Education have no directors or legal representatives.
Sources
GEMS Education, corporate announcement: GEMS Education welcomes over 1,700 world-class new teachers at annual GEMS Awareness Day, 22 August 2025, gemseducation.com; retrieved 8 October 2026.
Dubai Financial Services Authority, approved prospectus for US$200,000,000 Subordinated Perpetual Certificates issued by GEMS MEA Sukuk Limited, dated 19 November 2013, section Management and Employees, published on dfsa.ae; retrieved 8 October 2026.
CVC Capital Partners, press release of 10 July 2019, cvc.com; retrieved 8 October 2026.
Group Structure
Group structure of GEMS Education
GEMS Education is not an independent single company and it is not, on the evidence found, a registered company at all. It is a brand sitting over a group whose holding entities are registered in the Cayman Islands and whose schools are operated by separately licensed companies in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere. The provider note on this page, which states that no parent, subsidiary or ownership linkage is available and that this usually means the company is small and operates as a single entity, is wrong for this record on both counts.
The one complete structure chart that could be opened at source is in the prospectus approved by the Dubai Financial Services Authority on 19 November 2013. It documents a chain from Varkey Group Limited, described as the ultimate parent company, through GEMS MENASA TopCo (Cayman) Limited, described as the direct parent, to GEMS MENASA (Cayman) Limited, the company through which the Middle East and Africa business was operated and against which the group’s regional financing was raised. Beneath that company the chart places the operating entities, including Premier Schools International (L.L.C.), which ran 23 named Dubai and Sharjah schools as branches of itself rather than as separate companies. That chart is 13 years old and two changes of outside investor have been announced since, so it describes the structure as at that date only. No ownership percentage was published for any link in the chain.
Varkey Foundation must not be merged with this group. It is a separate legal person registered in England and Wales as a company under number 07774287 and as a charity under number 1145119, based in London, and its own description of itself makes no claim of a corporate relationship with the commercial group. The 2013 prospectus referred to a differently named body, the Varkey GEMS Foundation, as the philanthropic arm of GEMS Education, which makes the name similarity a live mis-matching risk rather than a theoretical one.
One further caution on entity matching: GEMS EDUCATION (DELAWARE) LLC (LEI 2138006I48MNIHASNY12) carries the brand in its registered name but is a Delaware limited liability company, and no filing or announcement found establishes its place in this structure. It is recorded here as a possible relationship only, on the strength of the name alone, which is not sufficient evidence of a corporate link.
Verified corporate relationships
| Entity | Country | Registration number | Relationship | Ownership | Status | Information date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Varkey Group Limited | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | Ultimate parent of GEMS MENASA (Cayman) Limited | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Historical | 19 November 2013 |
| GEMS MENASA TopCo (Cayman) Limited | Cayman Islands | Not disclosed | Immediate parent of GEMS MENASA (Cayman) Limited | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Historical | 19 November 2013 |
| GEMS MENASA (Cayman) Limited | Cayman Islands | MC-181964 | Middle East and Africa holding company and financing obligor | Not applicable | Entity status Active in GLEIF; LEI registration lapsed | GLEIF record last updated 17 July 2022 |
| GEMS MEA Sukuk Limited | Cayman Islands | Not disclosed | Special-purpose issuer and trustee of the 2013 certificates, incorporated 22 July 2013 | Not applicable | Historical | 19 November 2013 |
| Premier Schools International (L.L.C.) | United Arab Emirates | Not disclosed | Subsidiary; operated 23 named Dubai and Sharjah schools as its own branches | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Historical | 19 November 2013 |
| GEMS World Academy L.L.C. Abu Dhabi | United Arab Emirates | Not disclosed | Subsidiary | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Historical | 19 November 2013 |
| GEMS American Academy Abu Dhabi L.L.C. | United Arab Emirates | Not disclosed | Subsidiary | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Historical | 19 November 2013 |
| School Transport Services (L.L.C.) | United Arab Emirates | Not disclosed | Subsidiary; student transport | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Historical | 19 November 2013 |
| School Improvement Partnership Limited | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | Subsidiary; operating entity of the GEMS Education Solutions consulting brand | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Historical | 19 November 2013 |
| Cambridge International School Limited | Kenya | Not disclosed | Subsidiary | Ownership percentage not disclosed | Historical | 19 November 2013 |
Recent structural changes
10 July 2019. CVC Capital Partners announced that funds it advises led a consortium acquiring approximately a 30 per cent stake in GEMS Education from a consortium led by Fajr Capital Limited that included Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities funds and Bahrain’s Mumtalakat, with Khazanah Nasional Berhad retaining 3 per cent. Source: CVC Capital Partners announcement, 10 July 2019.
18 June 2024. CVC announced a binding agreement for its consortium to sell a majority of its stake to a consortium led by Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., with the CVC consortium retaining a stake and existing minority shareholders including Khazanah Nasional Berhad exiting; completion was stated as expected in the third quarter of 2024. Gulf Islamic Investments announced on 17 July 2024 that its funding arrangements within that consortium had concluded, and Dubai Islamic Bank announced on 22 July 2024 a US$3.25 billion sustainability-linked facility that funded the exit of the majority of the minority shareholders’ position. No filing confirming legal completion of the share transfer was located, so the transaction is reported as announced and funded rather than as a completed change of parent.
No change of ultimate parent, no merger, and no liquidation or dissolution of any entity in the chain above could be verified.
Data availability
Historical and partial. The Cayman Islands does not publish ownership chains for exempted companies and United Arab Emirates licensing authorities do not publish group linkage, so the structure above rests on a listing document that is 13 years old, supplemented by dated transaction announcements that give no percentages. Searches of the national economic register route were blocked rather than empty: the business-name search endpoint at the register’s current host resolved to a not-found handler when checked on 8 October 2026, the Dubai schools regulator returned HTTP 403 to this client, and an Abu Dhabi regulator school-directory path returned 404 while that regulator’s home page returned 200. A same-session control against the GLEIF index returned HTTP 200 and 9,527 records for entities with a legal address in the United Arab Emirates, which is why the GLEIF findings above are treated as genuine absences and the register findings are not. Nothing here should be read as evidence that the group has no parent or no subsidiaries.
Sources
Dubai Financial Services Authority, approved prospectus for US$200,000,000 Subordinated Perpetual Certificates issued by GEMS MEA Sukuk Limited, dated 19 November 2013, sections Description of the Group and General Information, published on dfsa.ae; retrieved 8 October 2026.
Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, Level 1 record for GEMS MENASA (CAYMAN) LIMITED, LEI 213800KB2HCLUSOQ2G49, last updated 17 July 2022; retrieved 8 October 2026.
Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation, Level 1 record for GEMS EDUCATION (DELAWARE) LLC, LEI 2138006I48MNIHASNY12; retrieved 8 October 2026.
CVC Capital Partners, press releases of 10 July 2019 and 18 June 2024, cvc.com; retrieved 8 October 2026.
Gulf Islamic Investments, press release of 17 July 2024, gii.ae; retrieved 8 October 2026.
Dubai Islamic Bank, press release of 22 July 2024, dib.ae; retrieved 8 October 2026.
Varkey Foundation, About us page stating company registration 07774287 and charity registration 1145119, varkeyfoundation.org; retrieved 8 October 2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What does GEMS Education do?
GEMS Education is a trading brand for a group of private-school and education-services companies based in Dubai, not the registered name of a single company. The group runs kindergarten-to-Grade-12 private schools and related services including student transport, extra-curricular and teacher training, and consulting and management for third-party schools. Its own website stated 52 schools across the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Egypt and more than 200,000 students when checked on 8 October 2026.
Who owns GEMS Education?
No shareholder register is public in either relevant jurisdiction, so only announced transactions can be reported. CVC Capital Partners announced on 10 July 2019 that funds it advises led a consortium acquiring approximately 30 per cent from a consortium led by Fajr Capital that included Blackstone Tactical Opportunities funds and Bahrain Mumtalakat, with Khazanah Nasional Berhad retaining 3 per cent. On 18 June 2024 CVC announced a binding agreement to sell a majority of that stake to a consortium led by Brookfield Asset Management, with the remaining minority holders exiting. Advisers described the incoming and outgoing positions as preferred equity rather than ordinary shares, and no current percentages are published.
Who is GEMS Education's UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner)?
Restricted. Cabinet Decision No. 109 of 2023 on Regulating the Beneficial Owner Procedures requires United Arab Emirates companies to file a register of real beneficiaries with the licensing authority, but that register is confidential and not open to public inspection, and the Cayman Islands beneficial ownership regime is not publicly searchable either. The only officially stated control position is in the prospectus of 19 November 2013, which records that the shares in Varkey Group Limited, then the ultimate parent, were held on trust by a private trust company for the benefit of members of the Varkey family. That statement is 13 years old and predates two changes of outside investor, so no effective ownership percentage is calculated.
Is GEMS Education still an active company?
GEMS Education's status on Company Data Enrichment is listed as active.
What is GEMS Education's registered address?
The registered address on file for GEMS Education is Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
What is GEMS Education's revenue?
The most recent figures available from a primary document that could be opened at source are consolidated figures for the year ended 31 March 2013: revenue of US$455.9 million and adjusted EBITDA of US$125.9 million for GEMS MENASA (Cayman) Limited and its subsidiaries, which employed 9,595 staff at that date. These are group figures, not figures for a single operating company, and no later audited accounts are published.
Is GEMS Education listed on a stock exchange?
No GEMS equity could be found admitted to trading on any exchange. The only GEMS securities confirmed from a primary listing document are US$200,000,000 subordinated perpetual certificates issued on 21 November 2013 by GEMS MEA Sukuk Limited, a Cayman Islands special-purpose issuer, which were admitted to the main securities market of the Irish Stock Exchange and to Nasdaq Dubai at a profit rate of 12.00 per cent to a first call date of 21 November 2018. Recurring press reports of a potential share listing are not evidence of a completed one.
Who are the officers/directors of GEMS Education?
No register publishes directors for any legal person identified behind this record: mainland United Arab Emirates authorities and the Cayman Islands registry both withhold director data for private companies. The group own announcement of 22 August 2025 names Sunny Varkey as Chairman and Founder, Dino Varkey as Group Chief Executive Officer and Lisa Crausby OBE as Group Chief Education Officer; those are company-published management titles, not filed directorships. The last board list that could be opened at source dates from 19 November 2013 and is historical. Nationality is not disclosed.
Does GEMS Education have a parent company or subsidiaries?
The structure documented in the prospectus of 19 November 2013 runs from Varkey Group Limited as ultimate parent, through GEMS MENASA TopCo (Cayman) Limited, to GEMS MENASA (Cayman) Limited, which held the Middle East and Africa business; beneath it, Premier Schools International (L.L.C.) operated 23 named Dubai and Sharjah schools as branches of itself. That chart is historical and no ownership percentages were published. Varkey Foundation is a separate legal person registered in England and Wales as company 07774287 and charity 1145119 and is not part of the commercial group.
Can Zavia monitor changes to GEMS Education's ownership over time?
This profile reflects a point-in-time snapshot from Company Data Enrichment. Zavia's monitoring API can track changes to GEMS Education's registered shareholders, officers, and group structure going forward, flagging updates as they're filed rather than requiring a manual recheck.
Can I access GEMS Education's data through an API?
Yes. Zavia's API connects directly to official government ownership registries across 195 countries and territories, including United Arab Emirates, so records like GEMS Education's registration, shareholder, UBO, and group-structure data can be queried programmatically instead of viewed one page at a time.
Where does this company information come from, and how current is it?
This record is sourced directly from Company Data Enrichment and was last synced on 1 October 2026.