A recent report by the global provider of financial market data and infrastructure, Refinitiv has revealed that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region witnessed an 11 percent growth in Merger and Acquisitions (M&A), raising the overall value to $21 billion in the first quarter of 2022.
The UAE which benefitted the most from the activity reported $4.3 billion in transaction value this year, a 5 percent compared to the same period last year. The country accounted for 46 percent of all activity in the region.
“The largest MENA target M&A deal of the year so far is UAE’s hospital operator NMC Healthcare’s $2.25 billion sale to its creditors. Healthcare was the most active sector in MENA with $2.3 billion in deal activity, equivalent to a quarter of M&A activity in 2022,” the Refinitiv report stated.
The financial sector was the next biggest beneficiary, accounting for 15 percent of year-to-date (YTD) activity in 2022. The percentage was comparatively low with respect to the 25 percent share it gathered in the same period last year.
The Refinitiv data revealed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was the second most targeted nation with 23 percent of the deals year-to-date.
Meanwhile, deals with values lower than $500 million amounted to an activity value of $4.6 billion so far this year, the strongest start to a year since records began in 1980.
Outbound M&A doubles
The report shows at merger and acquisition deals targetting the MENA region have seen a decline of 29 percent from last year with $9.2 billion worth of M&A activity so far this year. The trend remains consistent with Inbound M&A deals as well which dropped 42 percent to $1.9 billion in 2022.
Meanwhile, outbound M&A deals doubled in volume from last year touching $8.8 billion.
Among investment banks, Goldman Sachs topped activity with any MENA Involvement M&A league table with $4.6 billion in related activity or a 22 percent share of the market. Lazard came in the second spot with a 21 percent market share.
