Lumina Capital and Clyde&Co Event: Panel Discussion on Middle East Cross Border M&A

Key outtakes of discussion:

• Active M&A market as we emerge from Covid period, excess cash saved/not utilized being used to position for future growth.

• Family offices are taking over the traditional role of PE in the region, moving away from lower return real estate investments to corporate investments enabling skills and technology transfer back into the region.

• Private equity will return in the medium term – to provide exits to the wave of VC led investments we’ve seen in the last year and to provide a more mature form of patient capital.

• JVs are being restructured and current partnerships can be outdated. These are being revamped/restructured – highly relevant in Saudi. Head office situation also pushing companies to have 100% owned entities in the region and not just JVs.

• Cross border deals are:

  • Being driven by ESG investing (KSA investing directly into clean / green market leaders such as the recent SABIC GBP1m Teeside investment).

  • Trade trade pacts are growing between the UK and the region – e.g Mubadala’s GBP10bn commitment into tech, infrastructure sectors in the UK.

  • The public sector has paved the way for increased private sector cross-border as cross border deal making confidence grows.