Executive Summary
- The GCC has witnessed a slowdown in the first half of 2025 within the M&A realm, recording a total of 72 successful transactions across the six countries, (H1 2024: 92). These transactions were heavily concentrated in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), who collectively accounted for 81% of the total transactions that closed throughout the period. This is followed by Qatari targets, who captured 7% of the total pool of transactions closed, followed by Bahrain and Oman, each representing 6%, and finally Kuwait representing approximately 1% of closed transactions in the GCC. It is worth noting that Oman and Qatar were the only markets to witness growth in the total number of transactions closed year over year, while the remaining markets recorded zero to negative growth throughout the period.
- Moreover, these transactions spanned across an array of sectors however investors particularly expressed a vast level of interest in the Consumer Discretionary, Financials, Industrials, Education and Information Technology sectors, which is evident as 58% of the transactions that closed revolved around players within the aforementioned sectors.
- Furthermore, GCC companies continued to attract interest from foreign buyers, who have sealed a total of 24 transactions throughout H1 2025. This further exemplifies a stable level of international interest in the GCC market, with foreign buyers accounting for 33% of the total number of transactions closed during H1 2025 (H1 2024: 33%) that involved GCC targets. The UAE reigned the charts throughout H1 2025 and H1 2024 as it captured 59% of the combined number of transactions that closed throughout the respective periods.
