What war? Gulf dealmaking jumps 120% as buyers double down despite war

Regular readers of this column know that M&A activity across the Gulf picked up pace even as the IPO pipeline emptied in the wake of the US-Iran war — but would you buy that it’s up more than 2x? Companies and state entities across our region announced c. USD 47 bn of acquisitions in the period since the conflict started — more than 120% above the same stretch a year earlier, even as global M&A values fell 8% — according to a tally by Bloomberg of transactions announced through April. Abu Dhabi funds have done most of the heavy lifting with big pushes into banking, healthcare, infrastructure, and technology.

Abu Dhabi AI investor MGX is weighing its first Asian buyout, exploring a multi-bn-USD acquisition of Singapore-based data-center operator DayOne, Reuters reports. If the two sides reach an agreement on price, a deal would hand MGX an operating footprint across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Finland to sit alongside its stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI as it chases USD 100 bn in assets.

Aramco is weighing the sale of a stake in its sulphur business, built around storage and export terminals, in a deal that could raise up to USD 7 bn, Reuters reports. It’s part of a broader monetization push that could pull up to USD 50 bn from Aramco’s infrastructure — oil export terminals (up to USD 25 bn), the HQ real-estate campus (c. USD 10 bn), and crude-linked water assets (c. USD 500 mn). The template is a USD 11 bn sale-and-leaseback of its Jafurah gas facilities to a BlackRock-led consortium.

The King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) is pushing ahead with what could be a USD 500 mn sale of its district cooling business, Bloomberg reports, with Standard Chartered running the process and competitive interest from the UAE’s Tabreed and PIF’s own Saudi Tabreed. Cooling has become one of the Gulf’s busier infrastructure trades — Qatar’s Qatar Cool and Marafeq are reportedly weighing a merger, and Tabreed and CVC DIF bought Pal Cooling in an AED 3.8 bn deal last year.

Our friends at Amanat Holdings took full control of Cambridge Health Group (CHG), with the Dubai-listed healthcare and education investor spending another AED 105 mn for the final 10.03% to wrap a phased buyout, according to a press release. Full ownership of one of the GCC’s largest post-acute and rehab platforms gives Amanat room to push past 1k beds and adds AED 9 mn to annualized net income. Amanat’s strategy: It buys, scales, then lists, having taken its education arm Almasar through a USD 159.7 mn Tadawul IPO last November.

Al Masar Al Shamil Education signed a non-binding MoU to buy 60% of Al Qalam Educational Trading, the Tadawul-listed operator said in a disclosure, with due diligence running to 30 September and no advisers named yet. Saudi school groups are being rolled up fast: EFG Hermes has deployed more than USD 100 mn across six Saudi schools in a year, Ashmore closed its second school deal in April, and Maarif bought Ibn Khaldoun last May.

Egypt’s government slammed the door on AD Ports. The Holding Company for Maritime and Land Transport confirmed in an EGX filing (pdf) that it has no intention of selling any of its shares in Alexandria Container and Cargo Handling (ALCN), killing AD Ports’ bid to take up to 90% of the EGX-listed port operator through subsidiary Black Caspian Logistics and consolidate ADQ’s existing 51.33% indirect majority. The rejection confirms EnterpriseAM’s exclusive: the state will sit on its 42.9% blocking stake rather than take the sweetened EGP 27.47-a-share offer, up 19.5% from the original EGP 22.99. The Madbouly government is watching what the rest of the world is watching — Gulf logistics assets are repricing in the wake of the war as governments and companies alike look for redundancy.

Investcorp is buying a majority stake in UK facilities-management firm Smart Managed Solutions for over USD 200 mn, Bloomberg reports, and wants to bolt on more acquisitions across new UK regions and end markets. It comes a week after Investcorp took a stake in UAE-based Metra.

UAE climate-investment vehicle Altérra made its Latin America debut, teaming with infrastructure investor I Squared Capital to invest in Inkia Energy, Peru’s biggest independent power producer, per an Altérra statement (size undisclosed).

ADGM-based PE firm Aliph Capital is betting on Saudi healthcare education, making a strategic investment in Madinah’s Al Rayan Medical Colleges to fund international university tie-ups, infrastructure, and new specializations, per a statement (pdf). Aliph said this was the direction in which it was heading when it launched its debut USD 200 mn fund targeting GCC healthcare, education, and infrastructure services.

The companies waiting on Saudi Arabia’s frozen IPO window showed up in Rome for FII Priority Europe — chief among them Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick’s AI-and-robotics venture Atoms, which is ready to list on Tadawul but has no timeline and no green light from the Capital Market Authority. “We tried to go public in the Saudi market in 1Q, but for obvious reasons — with the conflict, etc — we got to a place where it just wasn’t possible,” Kalanick told AGBI. FII’s own organizer, Richard Attias & Associates, has also filed a listing request.

Solutions by STC is teeing up another float. The Tadawul-listed digital arm of STC plans to list its systems-integration unit Pulse by Solutions, the Egypt-based business formerly known as Giza Systems, on a regional exchange by 2028, with Tadawul, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi all in the running, CEO Ahmed El Harany told reporters at a briefing EnterpriseAM attended. Pulse turned over SAR 2.6 bn (c. USD 690 mn) last year and is gunning for USD 1 bn by 2028, part-funded by acquisitions in digital banking, digital health, and applied AI.

Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) is doubling down on Egypt, anchoring East Cairo’s Mada City with a USD 3.1 bn+ (c. EGP 155 bn) mixed-use project under a revenue-sharing partnership with Midar, per a cabinet statement. Total development value will break north of USD 4 bn once a retail component is added. It gives Midar another marquee partner inside Mada, after SODIC’s EGP 110 bn wellness venture and Emaar Misr’s EGP 100 bn New Mivida — and raises the stakes on reports that Saudi’s Sumou Holding was in talks to buy Midar for c. USD 3.5 bn.

Al Rajhi Capital and Osus Real Estate are putting SAR 1 bn into three residential towers in Makkah’s Masar Destination, with the 7k sqm plot sold by Umm Al Qura for SAR 239.8 mn — double its SAR 114.2 mn book value — per a Tadawul disclosure and press release. It extends Al Rajhi‘s Makkah pipeline alongside a SAR 3.5 bn Jarham South play and a SAR 6 bn Hindawiya scheme.

Sidra Capital and Four Directions signed a SAR 450 mn+ MoU to develop Riyadh’s Fashion District, a mixed-use scheme of luxury hotel, offices, residential, retail, and an events venue.

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PIF-owned Newcastle United wants outside capital for its stadium plans, holding early talks with KKR-owned Arctos Partners over a minority investment to fund a St. James’ Park redevelopment or a GBP 1 bn, 70k-seat new build, Bloomberg reports

PIF-Bahrain JV Gulf International Bank Saudi launched syndication on a USD 250 mn three-year term loan, Zawya reports.

Single-stock futures on CIB and Talaat Mostafa Group (TMG) — two of the Egyptian Exchange’s most liquid names — started trading on the EGX yesterday in three- and six-month maturities. The rollout follows a lukewarm reception for the exchange’s first derivatives product, EGX30 index futures.

Market Snapshot

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