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Dubai / WAM
Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) declined in the first quarter of 2017 recording 84 deals, compared to 115 deals in Q1 of 2016, according to the Q1 2017 M&A report from global professional services firm EY. However, the report shows that MENA deal values remained broadly stable reaching US$18.2bn in Q1 of 2017, compared to $18.4bn in Q1 2016.
The outbound announced deal value increased substantially by 636 per cent from $1.3bn in Q1 2016 to $9.3bn in Q1 2017. Furthermore, the announced inbound deal value also rose exponentially from $0.5bn in Q1 2016 to $5.7bn in Q1 2017. On the contrary, the announced deal activity value for domestic transactions witnessed a significant decrease of 81 per cent in Q1 2017 compared with Q1 2016.