DUBAI - Safanad, a New York-based private investment firm, will co-invest with Global School Management (GSM) $200 million in the education sector in the Middle East and North Africa, they said on Wednesday.

They committed "to invest significantly beyond this to acquire, manage and develop multiple charter, online, early learning, and K-12 private schools independently and in partnership with regional governments," the firms said in a statement.

GSM, set up in 2014 with Safanad as a founding investor, has more than 50,000 students in 165 schools and academies, mainly in the United States, Europe and Africa, the statement said.

"GSM is finalising transactions to acquire several schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE," where it already operates an online K-12 American school in Dubai with "blended learning," it said.

These acquisitions would add about 10,000 students immediately, it added.

"We also hope to serve as a strategic partner to regional governments by cooperating with them in public private partnership initiatives," GSM CEO Ron Packard said in the statement.

The firm announced the investment commitment at Saudi Arabia's FII investment conference.

(Reporting by Yousef Saba; editing by Jason Neely)