Mubadala Fund buys medical schools in Bahia and enters the education sector in Brazil

Courses offer 400 places and have monthly fees of R$ 11,600

Medicine courses are coveted by investors for their high profitability — Photo: Freepik.com

The Mubadala fund, from the United Arab Emirates, announced this Thursday its first foray into the education sector in Brazil, with the purchase of control of UniFTC Salvador, a medical school in the capital of Bahia, and Unesulbahia, a university center in Eunápolis. , in the interior of Bahia.

The value of the deal was not disclosed. In other recent acquisitions in this sector, the price paid by investors reached R$ 1.4 million per vacancy qualified for the Medicine course, which is usually very disputed and charges high monthly fees.

The two institutions purchased by Mubaldala have together 400 places in Medicine, 20% of which are offered by the Fies and ProUni programs, and 2,000 students enrolled in other degrees.

Notorious investor in infrastructure areas, Mubadala is an arm of the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates. The private equity fund’s entry into the education area shows the high attractiveness of the Medicine subsector, which, unlike private higher education as a whole, maintains strong demand and high profitability.

Monthly fee of BRL 11 thousand

Students are enrolled for at least six years and, in the case of the two faculties purchased by Mubadala, Medicine tuition fees start at around R$11,000. About 40% of the students come from outside Bahia, mainly from Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo.

The two educational institutions were controlled by the Oliveira family, which will be Mubadala’s minority partner in them and will maintain the other UniFTC units, which has campuses in Salvador and ten other cities in Bahia. Unesulbahia, located in Eunápolis, a city close to Porto Seguro, offers, in addition to medicine, other degrees in the health area, such as Nursing, Pharmacy and Biomedicine, and the Law course. All will be kept.

The units acquired by Mubadala will form a new educational institution, but they should initially maintain their marks. The president of the institution will become the executive Thiago Sayão, who has already headed medical schools. He told GLOBO that curriculum guidelines and faculty must be maintained. In the medium term, the new management intends to commission market studies to assess whether it will change the name of the brands.

— The pedagogical design of the courses and the perception of quality attracted us. The Salvador course is very relevant to the region, it currently offers 360 places in all and has almost 20 years of tradition. The one in Eunápolis is more recent, it started in 2020, and we expect to offer 120 vacancies in the future. Both have the same laboratories and technological resources – said the executive.

Source: The Globe