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Lighthouse Education dims its light as construction costs surge: Education investment platform Lighthouse Education is shutting down before it could properly start to deploy any funds, just three years after the close of its first fundraising round, Asharq Business reports, citing two anonymous sources it says are familiar with the matter.
The float of the EGP spurred on the decision: The decision was prompted by the high cost of building schools following the float of the EGP, with the decision to close the fund presented as a way to avoid making losses.
A dollarized market is also partly to blame: The majority of investments in the education sector are conducted in USD, which put the fund in a bind following the float of the EGP and interest rate hikes, one of the sources said.
Lighthouse? The investment fund was launched in July 2021 by Misr Ins. Holding Company, the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, Banque Misr, and the Suez Canal Bank as well as Al Orman schools founder Hossam El Kabbany and financial advisor Ironwood Investments to channel investment into private K-12 schools.
Despite not lacking ambition, Lighthouse never ended up investing its money where it wanted: After reaching a first close of EGP 560 mn a few months after the fund was founded, the company announced plans to acquire majority stakes in at least two K12 private schools before the end of 2021, but we never got wind of any agreement coming to fruition. More recently, the company had plans in 2023 to acquire stakes in two primary schools before the start of the 2023-2024 academic year, but again we didn’t hear much more after the initial announcement. Instead of education-focussed investments, shareholders recently allocated 25% of platform’s total funds to treasury bills, one of the sources said.
The decision is still in the balance: The fund will hold a general assembly on 24 September to approve the liquidation.
ICYMI: We took a deep dive into how private and international schools are navigating elevated costs following the EGP float in a Blackboard earlier this year and reexamined some of the headwinds facing the sector, including stringent building requirements and land scarcity, in July.
