Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat has signed a contract with private partners to set up a new university in Bahrain in line with the fund’s focus on investment in the education sector.

MEED understands the construction of the new university, for which the location has not been publicly announced, will start this year. “You will see concrete activities [on this project] this year,” Mahmood al-Kooheji, CEO of Mumtalakat, tells MEED.

The executive said the university “will focus on applied [disciplines] and job-related training and education.”

“The reason for this [investment] is that governments traditionally create jobs but globally nine out of 10 jobs are now created by the private sector. We need to encourage the private sector … to make people available for them to employ,” Al-Kooheji explains, adding that the education sector must grow in proportion with the rapidly-growing youth population.

Mumtalakat’s education portfolio includes an investment in Dubai-based Gems, whose other investors include Dubai's Fajr Capital and US-based private equity firm Blackstone.

In addition to education, Al-Kooheji said Mumtalakat will be focusing on two other growth sectors namely healthcare and renewable energy.

In 2016, Mumtalakat acquired a significant minority stake in Italy’s KOS Group, which focuses on long-term care and rehabilitation services, with additional activities in hospital equipment management, diagnostics and cancer care services. “This company is now operating in Saudi Arabia, and in Bahrain hopefully soon,” says Al-Kooheji.

More recently in October last year,  Mumtalakat along with investment management firm Arcapita, also of Bahrain, jointly acquired an approximately 90 per cent stake in UAE’s NAS United Healthcare Services, an outsourced health insurance processing services firm.

Called a third-party administrator (TPA), NAS at the time of acquisition offers services to more than 40 health insurance and Takaful companies in GCC region and processes in excess of three million medical claims annually. It also offers outsourcing and information technology (IT) solutions in the field of healthcare benefits administration.

In terms of renewables, Al-Koheeji said they have yet to make any investments but that they have already put together a team to explore the sector. “It’s an area of huge growth and opportunities, if you ask me in a few years’ time, we will have [investments in renewables energy].”

Mumtalakat is estimated to have assets under management worth $10.6bn. It generated $183m in profits in 2016. It is the sole owner of Bahrain's national carrier Gulf Air.