DUBAI — Mergermarket hosted its Middle Eastern M&A and Private Equity Forum on Monday. Among the key themes discussed were the drivers of growth in the region, deals made by family owned companies, emerging markets opportunities as well as private equity developments. While merger and acquisition (M&A) deal flow in the Middle East (excludng Israel) of $2 billion in Q1 was down 31 percent from $2.9 billion in Q1 2013, activity in Q1 2014 managed to double the Q4 2013 value of $1 billion, according to Mergermarket data. Mergermarket's deals database shows that the value of the top five transactions alone made up 85.3 percent of the total M&A value in the region during Q1 2014. The top deal was the acquisition of the Qatar-based Barwa Bank by Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, for $0.7 billion. Tom Thraya, Partner and Head of Baker & McKenzie's UAE Corporate/M&A Group, said: “Thanks in part to our global footprint, we have continued to see a significant volume of inbound mandates into the UAE from multinationals. Since our merger with Habib Al Mulla went live in July, we have advised on an increasing number of domestic, regional and outbound FDI work for UAE corporates, coupled with a noticeable uptick in interest in listings both in the UAE and cross-border.” Foreign investments into the region have seen a dramatic change with deals valued at $0.5 billion in Q1 2014, over twelve times the value seen in Q1 2013 ($41m). The Netherlands invested almost half of the total inbound value in the region ($ 200m) resulting in Q1 2014 being the highest Q1 in six years ($3.3b in 2008), according to Mergermarket data. – SG
