Amanat Holdings, the UAE investor in health care and education, has appointed Tristan de Boysson as the company’s new chief executive.
In his new role at Amanat, Mr Boysson will oversee ongoing development and delivery on its business commitments and investments, the company said on Tuesday.
Previously, Mr Boysson was associated with Investcorp, the alternative investment firm that counts Mubadala Investment Company as its biggest shareholder. He launched Investcorp’s first Middle East-focused fund.
In 2014, Amanat was created out of a greenfield IPO on the Dubai stock market. The company raised Dh2.5 billion, including from 37 prominent founding shareholders, to invest in education and healthcare assets.
The company posted a Dh3.6 million third-quarter loss, in 2018, compared to a Dh14.9m net profit in the year-earlier period as total operating expenses more than doubled and revenue halved.
Mr Boysson will work closely with the management team as he will oversee the next phase of the company’s ambitious growth plans. Amanat is bullish on investments as governments in the Arabian Gulf continue to invest in healthcare and education and are open to private sector contribution.
The GCC expenditure on health care is forecast to rise to $104.6bn (Dh384.1bn) in 2022 from $76.1bn in 2017, rising at a compound annual growth rate of 6.6 per cent, Dubai investment bank Alpen Capital said in a report last year.
The demand for schools in the GCC region is projected to grow at a 3 per cent CAGR to 50,978 in 2020 from an estimated 43,903 schools in 2015, according to the report.
Throughout 2018, Shamsheer Vayalil, the vice chairman and managing director of the company, assumed the role of the chief executive on an interim basis.
"We look forward to his [Mr Vayalil's] continued commitment on the board and of his support of Tristan," said Hamad Al Shamsi, chairman of the Amanat board.
