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28 March 2024

UAE had 5.9% of global acquisitions in 2009

Country was top Arab buyer in 2009 with a total value of $14.8 bn. (AP)

Published
By Nadim Kawach

The UAE emerged as one of the largest global investors in cross-border acquisitions in 2009, accounting for nearly 5.9 per cent of the world’s total transactions in this field, according to official data.

The country was also on top of Arab investors in acquisitions last year after it boosted such deals by a staggering 148 per cent over the previous year at a time when global acquisitions tumbled by nearly 64 per cent, showed the figures by the Kuwaiti-based Inter-Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation (IAIGC).

From around $5.9 billion in 2008, total acquisition transactions completed by the UAE across the border leaped to nearly $14.8 billion in 2009, said IAIGC, the Arab League’s main investment organization.

The surge in the UAE deals was in contrast with a sharp fall in the value of global acquisitions transactions to about $249.7 billion in 2009 from nearly $706.5 billion in 2008 and a record $1,022 billion in 2007. The decline in the global transactions was apparently because of market turmoil due to the global fiscal crisis.

The surge lifted the UAE’s share of the global acquisitions deals from a mere 0.8 per cent in 2008 to nearly 5.9 per cent last year, the report showed.

The UAE also accounted for nearly 20 per cent of the total acquisitions transactions of around $73.9 billion in the developing world and as high as 53 per cent of the combined Arab deals of nearly $27.8 billion.

Last year’s deals by the UAE were the second highest after the record value of the acquisitions transactions of nearly $15.6 billion completed in 2007.

The report showed Qatar was second to the UAE in the Arab world, with a value of around $10.2 billion in 2009. It was followed by Oman with around $893 million and $Libya with a value of nearly $601 million.

Acquisitions deals were estimated at about $324 million by Morocco, $323 million by Bahrain, $283 million by Lebanon, $124 million by Kuwait, $121 million by Saudi Arabia and around $75 million by Egypt.

In 2008, the UAE was the second investor in the Arab world as Qatar topped the list with a value of around $6.02 billion, IAIGC’s report showed.

As for capital outflow, the UAE came fourth in the Arab world, pumping around $2.72 billion into other Arab and foreign markets last year.

Kuwait was the largest Arab capital exporter, with around $8.7 billion, followed by Saudi Arabia, with nearly $6.5 billion and Qatar with $3.7 billion.

In 2008, the UAE was the dominant capital exporter in the region, with its investments in other Arab nations and foreign markets peaking at $15.8 billion.

The report showed the UAE was the third largest seller in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the region last year, with a value of around $300 million. Egypt topped the list with nearly $993 million, followed by Morocco with around $333 million. Qatar came fourth with about $298 million.

In its latest annual report, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) ranked the UAE as the 30th largest capital exporter in the world,

pumping in excess of $53 billion into global markets in the past two decades.

The UAE was outstripped only by developed countries as it was ahead of most capital exporters in the developing nations, recording the largest outflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Arab region.

UNCTAD data showed FDI channeled by the UAE into global markets totaled around $53.5 billion during 1990-2009, by far the largest capital flow out of the Arab world. The figures covered only FDI as they did not include capital channeled by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds (SWFs).