The climb reflects global and Middle East trends, with global M&A activity recording a strong rebound during H1 2021 as total deal values soared by 120%
Egypt’s M&A transaction value more than quadrupled (394%) y-o-y during the first half of 2021, with 111 deals worth more than $4 billion, significantly higher than the $906 million during H1 2020 from 74 deals, according to the latest report by global law firm Baker McKenzie.
Overall deal making in Egypt was up across most months of H1 2021, with March as the busiest and the highest month recording 25 deals with a total of USD 2.2 billion, wrote the company.
The climb reflects global and Middle East trends, with global M&A activity recording a strong rebound during H1 2021 as total deal values soared by 120% and volumes by 22% from H1 2020.
In the Middle East, M&A activity continued its upward trend having 307 deals in the first half of 2021 (H1 2021); a significant increase by 59% and 48% when compared to the same period last year (H1 2020) as well as to the second half of 2020 (H2 2020), respectively.
“Despite the challenging global economic backdrop which varies in each country, M&A transactions in Egypt has been robust in the first half of 2021. During H1 2021, Egypt marked the most popular regional target market for outbound M&A and the second by volume with 18 deals valued at USD 1.8 billion,” explained Mohamed Ghannam, Managing Partner at Helmy, Hamza & Partners, Baker McKenzie Cairo when commenting on Egypt’s M&A activity for the first half of the current year.
By value, Egypt was the most popular country in the region for inbound M&A from foreign investors, and 2nd most popular by volume, with 18 transactions worth $1.8 billion according to a previous Baker McKenzie report.
Domestic transactions were slightly higher compared to cross-border in terms of volume (59 deals vs 52 deals) however, cross border deals were bigger in terms of value with a total of $2.8 billion (a Y-o-Y increase of 278%) as compared to $1.6 billion for domestic deals (a Y-o-Y increase of 925%).
Hani Nassef, M&A Partner at Helmy, Hamza & Partners, Baker McKenzie Cairo, said: “Interestingly, Egypt has been increasingly active and the domestic investment environment has been following the same bullish trend in the Middle East and globally. With a stable post-pandemic economy, we do expect further growth momentum for M&A transactions in the country in the coming months and leading to the New Year.”
Cross-border M&A was largely inbound to Egypt, with 39 transactions worth $2.5 billion, while the remaining 13 transactions worth $231 million were made by Egyptian companies on targets abroad.
