People with direct knowledge say Alephya is in late-stage discussions to take control of Ajialuna, although nothing has been finalized. Across Saudi Arabia, Ajialuna runs 10 private and international campuses, educating more than 17,000 students from kindergarten to high school. Some of the people involved put a potential valuation at up to $500 million.
Alephya runs 15 schools across the Gulf Cooperation Council and, per its website, serves more than 20,000 students. In 2024, TA Associates took majority ownership of the Dubai-based operator.
Bloomberg News reported last year that GEMS Education - the Dubai company supported by Brookfield Asset Management - had expressed interest in Ajialuna. Requests for comment to Alephya, Ajialuna and Sulaiman Alrajhi went unanswered. Both TA Associates and GEMS Education said they had no comment.
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Cross-border talks come after a stretch of strain between the UAE and Saudi Arabia that had Wall Street wondering about potential friction in capital flows between the two closely linked economies. A warming in ties surfaced in September, marked by a meeting between UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - the first public trip to the kingdom this year by a senior Emirati official.
Despite the turmoil, deal flow is still moving. According to Global SWF, sovereign-backed investors across the Middle East and North Africa have put $102 billion to work this year and are tracking toward their second-best year. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian cities and energy facilities have been regularly targeted by the Houthis in recent weeks, and on Sunday the coalition led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen began an operation to retake areas held by the Houthis.
Clashes have since intensified near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a route that can stand in for the vital Hormuz waterway. The fighting adds another front to the broader conflict with Iran, even as the Trump administration has shown reluctance to step deeper into the Saudi campaign against the Houthis.
Schools are viewed as a defensive bet in the Gulf, especially in Saudi Arabia, home to about 35 million people, roughly 20 million of whom are citizens. The kingdom is courting more expatriates under Vision 2030. After foreign ownership rules were relaxed in 2017, both international and regional school brands spread nationwide, and the number of Saudi students attending international schools has been rising as the government works to boost access and narrow skills gaps.
Even in expat-heavy Dubai, enrollment has held up. GEMS and Taaleem Holdings PSC reported resilient numbers in September, after the UAE thwarted thousands of projectiles from Iran early in the conflict. For investors, steady demand plus deep pools of state-backed capital help explain why bidders are circling education assets.
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