By Spy Uganda Correspondent
Gems Cambridge founder Sunny Varkey is set to exit the Kenyan market, marking 11 years since his company invested in their inaugural local project.
Varkey’s company sold most of its shareholding from its assets from Regis School in Runda to a local businessman in a struggle to offset debts accrued in past years necessitating the hurried sale.
Gems Cambridge had stretched its investments into the education sector by setting up schools that replicate international counterparts in Dubai.
When Cambridge set up operations in Kenya, it signed a deal with a local firm to construct Gems Cambridge International School located on Magadi Road in Karen, Nairobi County, at the cost of Ksh3 billion.
The company later acquired Hillcrest Schools at a reported cost of Ksh1.5 billion. In February 2019, according to reports the Dubai-based company announced its closure of the Karen-based campus. The learners of the institution were directed to join the students at Hillcrest.
GEMS Education is viewed as the largest operator of private kindergarten to grade-12 schools worldwide, amassing a network of over 80 schools in various countries.
Profile
Born in 1957 in Kerala, India, Varkey and his family moved to Dubai in 1959. Varkey relocated to the United Kingdom to complete his high school education before returning to Dubai.
During the discovery of oil in Dubai, Varkey’s parents opened a school termed ‘Our Own English High School.’ At the age of 23, he took over his parents’ business and began setting up more schools in Britain, India and Pakistan.
“Varkey, who never went beyond high school himself, took over the management of his parents’ Our Own English School in 1980 at age 23,” read part of his profile on Forbes.
In the year 2000, he established GEMS, an advisory and educational management firm. As of February 22, 2023, Varkey’s net worth stands at Ksh278 billion according to Forbes.
