#SaudiArabia’s SNB Capital Sees 2023 as M&A Year After IPO Boom - Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia’s SNB Capital Sees 2023 as M&A Year After IPO Boom - Bloomberg

Mergers and acquisitions activity in Saudi Arabia is set to pick up this year as the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund accelerates investments and private sector firms look to buy-up rivals, according to a top banker at the securities arm of the country’s biggest lender.

“We see 2023 as an M&A year,” said Zaid Ghoul, SNB Capital’s head of investment banking. “We think there’s a lot of M&A in the pipeline and expect a lot of that to be driven by the PIF, and also consolidation in the insurance and cement industries.”

SNB Capital has been building up its dealmaking capabilities and named Philippe Chabrier de Lassauniere as head of M&A last year in anticipation of a pick-up in work on deals, said Ghoul.

“This is why we launched M&A advisory as a separate unit last year and have hired a team of bankers to develop that pipeline and execute transactions,” said Ghoul.