Hopes rise for return of private equity deals

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Last year, many regional private equity executives, though shocked at the scale of the financial crisis, were confidently forecasting a “vintage year” for investments in the Middle East.

Firms, after all, had plenty of “dry powder” to take advantage of the economic downturn and subsequent drop in asset valuations. Between 2006 and 2008, 85 funds concentrating on the Middle East and north Africa raised $18.2bn, according to Preqin, a data provider, and much of it had yet to be invested when the crisis struck.

Yet a bumper crop of transactions failed to materialise. Apart from a few smaller deals – such as Investcorp, Eastgate Capital and The National Investor’s club deal to acquire a 70 per cent stake in Saudi jeweller L’Azurde – regional private equity houses largely stayed on the sidelines.