GEMS Education, a big Dubai-based schools operator, is looking at opportunities to expand during 2015 into Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries, the company's executive director has revealed.

The expansion plans announced on February 9, come after a group led by Dubai's Fajr Capital, and including Blackstone and Bahrain sovereign fund Mumtalakat, took a ‘significant minority stake’ in the firm late last year.

Last year's investment in GEMS is allowing it to expand, Dino Varkey, the executive director said.

The firm has a strong presence in the United Arab Emirates, where its website lists 12 schools as open for enrolment, and it also has schools in countries including Qatar, Egypt, Kenya, the United States, Switzerland, Uganda and India.

It opened its first school in Singapore in September 2014, and will open its first school in Malaysia in September 2015, said Varkey.

Varkey declined to say how much money the company was looking to invest in 2015, but said it had no immediate needs to raise fresh capital, either through an initial public offer of shares or through bond issuance.

VOV