This article is the third installment in a series of three introducing the investor Ahmed Badreldin and his main portfolio companies, RMBV, Cleopatra Holdings Company, and Taaleem. In our podcast, Thndr Claps with Waya, we will be asking Badreldin your most pressing investment questions. Send your questions to [email protected] and stay tuned for more. 

Taaleem Management Services operates El Nahda University in Beni Suef, the biggest private university in Upper Egypt. Taaleem was established in 2007, to start filling in the higher education market which remains underserved, especially in areas like Upper Egypt. The management services group chose to begin its operations in this underserved region of Egypt and has recently announced that it will be opening a university, Badya, this time in Cairo in 2023.

Nahda University in Beni Suef (NUB) was the first private university in Upper Egypt and it boasts the largest private Faculty of Medicine in the country, which it launched in partnership with the Medical University of Vienna International. Additionally, through a joint venture with Cleopatra Hospitals group in which CHG invested EGP 360 million to renovate Al Nahda Hospital in Beni Suef, allowing students to have access to more complex cases in a better-equipped environment. 

NUB has eight faculties: Pharmacy; Dentistry; Medicine; Physiotherapy; Engineering; Computer Science; Marketing and Business Administration; and Media. The university had over 6,270 enrolled students for the 2020/2021 academic year. NUB has proved to be a profitable and impactful institution. It is raising its tuition fees as the number of students rises. One of the reasons for its success is that it reports an 86% chance of employment following 6 months of graduation.  

Over the past decade, the higher education sector has been growing rapidly to adapt to growing demand. According to the Ministry of Higher Education, 3 million students are enrolled in universities in Egypt today, which is 30.4% higher than the 2.3 million seven years ago. The market is expected to continue to grow as a result of rising population levels and GDP growth. 

There are only 0.5 universities in Egypt per million population, according to Taaleem’s Q3 2021 report. This leaves ample room for more higher education facilities to support the local population.

To fill in this gap, Taaleem will be launching Badya University in West Cairo in association with an internationally acclaimed university, which has yet to be announced. The university, similar to NUB will also house 8 faculties and over 9,000 students. 

Taleem went public in February 2021 and witnessed very high demand during its IPO, the offering was oversubscribed by 29.38 times. However, the stock has not been performing well during the first few months of its EGX debut as expected, despite the fact that the company’s profitability continues to go up.