Goldman eyes mega deal to support Saudi expansion

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has approached a Saudi state-owned entity on a multibillion-dollar deal, Bloomberg reported, citing Wassim Younan, the bank’s chief executive officer for the Middle East and North Africa.

“We’re very keen on deploying our principal capital in the region in both forms: credit and equity capital. We continue to prospect for opportunities to do so, and we’ve put forward at least one meaningful, multibillion-dollar proposal to a state-owned enterprise,” he said, without giving the name of the entity or type of the deal.

Last year, Goldman was hired to advise Jabal Omar Development Co. on a potential merger with Umm Al Qura Development and is said to be among banks likely to manage Saudi Aramco's initial public offering (IPO0.

The New York-based firm also plans to double its headcount in Saudi Arabia, the bank's CEO Lloyd Blankfein said on Sunday.

In March, the bank appointed Ammar Al-Khudairy as non-executive chairman to help identify business opportunities and make principal investments.

Several investment banks such as Deutsche Bank AG, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, EFG Hermes and First Abu Dhabi Bank are also establishing their operations in the Kingdom to take advantage of economic opportunities arising from the privatization plan and investments in non-oil related sectors.