MOROCCO – Private Equity firm AfricInvest has announced that it has made a new investment in Morocco’s education sector.
The investor has acquired jointly with the Tunisian businessman Tawhid Chtioui, 80% of the Moroccan Higher Institute of Applied Engineering (ISGA).
Shares were acquired from the Diouri family which was until now the majority shareholder of the ISGA group. The operation was announced by several local media in September, but no details were given about the buyer.
With this participation, AfricInvest commits to support the development plan of the private education group over the next five years.
Let’s note that other Moroccan private education groups, such as the International Institute for Higher Education (IHEM), have been sold in recent years. The education industry as a whole in the country, and North Africa, has also experienced a strong dynamic.
For the change in shareholding, ISGA was assisted by the investment bank Baker Tilly Burj Finance. The operation takes the form of a “significant” investment contribution commitment over the next five years, to support the group’s development plan.
The group is reorganized into a public limited company, with a board of directors made up of Tawhid Chtioui, who will take over the chairmanship of the board of directors and the general management of the group, Mohamed Diouri, Brahim El Jai, partner within AfricInvest and CEO of AfricInvest Morocco and Farid Benlafdil, Investment Director at AfricInvest.
In that course, the group is reorganized into a public limited company and Tawhid Chtioui has been appointed chairman of the Board of Directors which will include three other members who are the group’s managing director, Mohamed Diouri, the CEO of AfricInvest Morocco, Brahim El Jai, and the investment director at AfricInvest, Farid Benlafdil.
With campuses in Rabat, Marrakech, Fez and Casablanca, the ISGA sees in this acquisition a dynamic allowing “the group, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, to animate communities of 1,200 students per year and 15,500 graduates “.
It is relevant to note that in 2020 the ISGA trained more than 16,000 students. AfricInvest follows the global trend with its arrival in the field of higher education.
The company provides funding for private schools that are seeing increased enrollment numbers. In Morocco, higher education is a market to be consolidated since it grew rapidly between 2012 and 2020, going from 509,000 students to just over a million.
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