Saudi Arabia’s M&A deals value reaches 10-year high

Despite uncertain geopolitics and rising protectionism around the world, Saudi Arabia’s domestic and cross-border deal volumes and values remained strong in 2018, according to research by White & Case M&A Explorer in partnership with Mergermarket.

Total outbound (Saudi-based companies or bidders targeting global deals) M&A activities by value in 2018 across all sectors, reached a 10-year high at $14.14 billion. It accounted for 0.4 percent of global deal value, up from from $13.39 billion in 2017, data showed.

The last quarter of 2018 alone saw outbound deal value reach $6.8 billion.

Similarly, the total outbound M&A activity by volume in 2018 edged up to 24 (accounting for 0.13 percent of global deal volume), from just 15 deals a year earlier.

The inbound M&A deal value also soared in 2018 to $8.27 billion (0.23 percent of global value), again highest in 10 years, the White & Case and Mergermarket data showed.However, the inbound deal volume remained flat at 18, compared to 2017.

In terms of sectors, industrials and chemicals attracted the most outbound M&A deals in value terms, cornering $7.32 billion in 2018, while financial services sector topped in terms of attracting highest inbound M&A deals in value ($4.92 billion).

In volume terms, consumer sector topped in outbound deals in 2018 (6 deals), compared with two sectors; namely, industrials and chemicals and consumer ranked first in terms of inbound activity (4 deals each).

At the global level, the deal value in 2018 was one of the highest on record, with a total $3.52 trillion— an 11.4 percent rise from 2017. Volume also nearly set a new record, with 19,105 deals recorded in the year.

Write to Sunil Kumar Singh at sunil.kumar@argaamplus.com