Mubasher: The value of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region witnessed a 68.7% increase to $26.76 billion in 2018, against $15.86 billion in 2017, according to a report released by Mergermarket.
The UAE topped the region with M&A transactions valued at $10.4 billion in 2018 as the state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) played an important role with seven divestments of its energy assets worth a combined $6.2 billion, the leading provider of M&A data and intelligence added.
Meanwhile, the number of deals in the MENA region surged by 15 to 148 deals last year from 133 in 2017.
Over the first six months of 2018, the value of M&A deals in the region rose to $15.16 billion, compared to $9.13 billion in 2017 after the number of transactions increased to 87 from 71.
On the other hand, the number of deals fell to 61 transactions worth $11.59 billion in the second half of last year, pressured by macro-economic and geopolitical headwinds, according to the report.
The number of cross-border MENA transactions reached 77 deals valued at $14.21 billion, while the value of domestic M&A deals amounted to 12.54 billion in 2018, from $8.742 billion in 2017.
In Saudi Arabia, Saudi British Bank (SABB) and Alawwal Bank’s $4.7 billion merger as well as the Saudi International Petrochemical’s (Sipchem) $2 billion acquisition of Sahara Petrochemical led to the increase in domestic deals.
This year is “expected to see continued pickup in M&A, with deals that have been waiting in the wings coming to fruition. Energy will still be a hot sector, even though there is likely to be diversification away from pure oil and gas plays towards renewables and parallel plays from larger players such as Aramco,” Mergermarket EMEA Bureaus’ editor Elaine Green said.
