Figures issued by Bureau Van Dijk and Zephyr show that there were 194 merger & acquisition (M&A) deals targeting companies in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region for a total of $26.6bn in the first five months of 2020. In comparison, there were 230 M&A deals worth $95.2bn in the first five months of 2019. The figures show a decrease of 15.7% year-on-year in the number of deals, and a decline of 72.1% in their amount in the covered period. The elevated value of deals in the first five months of 2019 was mainly driven by Saudi Aramco's acquisition in March 2019 of a 70% stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corporation for $69.1bn. The amount of M&A transactions in Bahrain reached $11.5bn in the first five months of 2020 and accounted for 43.1% of the region's aggregate deal value. The UAE followed with M&A deals valued at $9bn (34%), then Saudi Arabia with $1.6bn (6.1%), Qatar with $1.2bn (4.6%), Egypt with $1.1bn (4.1%), Oman with $926m (3.5%), Iran with $877m (3.3%), Kuwait with $298m (1.1%), Morocco with $42m (0.2%), Jordan with $18m (0.1%), and Lebanon with $1m. Egypt had 72 M&A deals in the covered period; followed by the UAE with 37 transactions; Saudi Arabia with 20 deals; Jordan and Kuwait with 15 transactions each; Oman with 12 deals; Bahrain with 10 transactions; Iran, Morocco and Qatar with three deals each; as well as Algeria and Lebanon with two transactions each.
Source: Zephyr, Bureau Van Dijk, Byblos Research