Dubai, UAE, 04 November 2019: StonePine ACE Partners – a joint venture between StonePine Capital Partners and ACE & Company SA – today announced its investment alongside CI Capital Holding for Financial Investment ("CI Capital") in Taaleem Management Services Company SAE ("Taaleem") a leading higher education platform in Egypt which controls and operates Nahda University in Beni Suef (NUB") for a total consideration of EGP 1.2bn (c. US$73m).

StonePine ACE Partners together with CI Capital and a group of co-investors acquired the platform from Thebes Education Management Holdings B.V., an RMBV managed co-investment vehicle funded by several Development Finance Institutions and global institutional investors.

StonePine ACE Partners Limited is a joint venture between StonePine Capital Partners, a investment firm with primary focus on private equity investments, and ACE & Company SA, a Geneva-based and FINMA regulated global private equity group. Both are leading private equity companies with collective AUMs close to USD1bn. 

Commenting on the deal, Youssef Haidar, Founder and CEO, of StonePine Capital Partners and the head of the StonePine ACE Fund, said: "We are incredibly proud of closing our second deal out of our StonePine ACE Fund this year. This deal represents a continuation of our investment strategy of teaming up with reputable investment companies regionally to target attractive assets in our verticals of interest. We believe in the promise the Egyptian market represents and in higher education as a sector with excellent upside appeal. We believe that our partnership with CI Capital to invest in NUB will yield excellent returns to our investor base". Youssef Haidar will represent the StonePine ACE Fund on the board of NUB. 

Sherif Elhalwagy, Managing Director at ACE & Company, said "We are very proud to be successfully executing our first investment in the promising Egyptian education sector alongside CI Capital. StonePine ACE will be augmenting CI Capital and NUB's management team in enhancing its offering to students to enable them to continuously achieve gainful employment upon graduation. We are proud of this mission and the investment we have made to support it. 

Taaleem Chairman and CEO Mohamed El Rashidi also said "We would like to welcome the StonePine ACE fund and its co-investors as new shareholders in Taaleem. We are confident that the StonePine ACE Fund will provide us with full support to accelerate Taaleem's next wave of growth, further concretizing our position as one of the largest institutionally-backed education platforms in Egypt". 

Taaleem is a leading higher education platform that controls and operates NUB, the largest private university in Upper Egypt with more than 5,600 enrolled students; it was born on the back of extensive Egyptian government reforms to the education sector that have encouraged private sector investment over the past several years. 

The university's location in Beni Suef enables students from this highly populous and underserved region to gain access to high quality education and state-of-the-art teaching methods. 

In addition to its existing six faculties, NUB recently launched the Faculty of Medicine for the upcoming academic year 2019/20, in partnership with the Medical University of Vienna International, one of the world's largest and most renowned medical universities with roots dating back more than 750 years. NUB's Faculty of Medicine is Upper Egypt's only private medical faculty and one of only a handful nationwide. 

Earlier this year StonePine ACE Partners lead a US$30 million series A investment in AWOK.com to help boost growth in the Dubai e-commerce platform as it expands internationally. The co-investor group included Al Faisaliah Ventures, the newly created Corporate Ventures Capital arm of Al Faisaliah Group, and globally renowned investment group Endeavor Catalyst.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

About StonePine Capital Partners

StonePine Capital Partners is an investment firm with a primary focus on private equity investments. The company currently invests out of two pools platforms in the MENA region; a sector-agnostic fund managed in partnership with ACE & Company and a healthcare-focused investment company with established global clinical partners targeting specific healthcare verticals in the GCC. StonePine Capital Partners draws on its founder's extensive expertise in private equity having managed multiple funds previously in the Middle East, North Africa and India regions and its extensive MENA networks which enables it to source highly attractive proprietary deal flow. www.stonepine-capital.com

About ACE & Company

ACE currently manages c. US $ 900 million in multiple global strategies and provides private investors unparalleled access to quality opportunities across the direct investment ecosystem. Uniquely positioned to understand the needs and challenges facing private investors today, ACE’s flexible platform offers diversified portfolios across the stages of the investment spectrum from early, to growth, to mature. www.aceandcompany.com

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