Figures issued by Bureau Van Dijk and Zephyr show that there were 39 private equity (PE) deals targeting companies in the Middle East & North Africa region for a total value of $569m in the first half of 2018. In comparison, there were 27 PE deals worth a total of $202m in the first half of 2017. The figures show an increase of 44.4% in the volume of deals and a surge of 181.7% in their value year-on-year in the first half of 2018. The value of PE transactions in Saudi Arabia reached $267m in the first half of the year, and accounted for 47% of the region's aggregate deal value in the covered period. Egypt followed with PE deals of $97m (17%), then Morocco with $93m (16.3%), Lebanon with $61m (10.7%), the UAE with $49m (8.6%) and Jordan with $3m (0.5%). In volume terms, the UAE had 19 PE deals in the first half of the year, followed by Egypt with eight transactions, Jordan and Morocco with three deals each, and Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Tunisia with two transactions each. In addition, the value of PE deals targeting the construction sector reached $76m, or 13.4% of total value in the first half of 2018, followed by banks with $60m (10.5%), the education and healthcare sectors with $56m (9.8%), the wholesale and retail trade sector with $40m (7%), the insurance sector with $18m (3.2%) and the machinery, equipment, furniture & recycling sector with $2m (0.4%), while the remaining $316m in PE deals, or 55.5% of the total, targeted other services. 
Source: Zephyr, Bureau Van Dijk, Byblos Research