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Saudi’s material

relative to Q3 2019 as well as Q4 2018. Foreign buyers have predominately acquired companies within the UAE, which is evident based on the number of transactions that involved UAE targets (~84%). The remaining transactions involved Bahraini and Saudi targets, each of whom represented 8% of the total transactions completed. Kuwait, Oman and Qatar recorded no foreign activity throughout the quarter.

Sectorial View The transactions that closed throughout the quarter spanned across multiple sectors unlike the previous quarter whereby 60% of the total activity was concentrated within four sectors. The sectors that witnessed the greatest level of activity throughout Q4 2019 were the Industrials sector and the Financials sector, which accounted for 17% and 15% of the total number of transactions

respectively. The remaining transactions predominately fell within the following four sectors: Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Healthcare and Real Estate. Collectively, these four sectors accounted for 40% of the total activity.

In addition, the Real Estate sector witnessed a slower season last quarter however, it observed a high level of activity throughout Q4 2019, in which it recorded a total of 5 closed transactions. On the other hand, the Energy and IT sectors recorded the greatest drop in the level of activity relative to the previous quarter.

Deals Pipeline By the end of Q4 2019, there was a total of 14 announced transactions in the pipeline, which translates into a 17% growth QoQ. Roughly 36% of the these transactions involved Saudi targets, followed by the UAE and Oman, who accounted for 29% and 14% of the announced transactions, respectively. Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar had each announced one transaction throughout the quarter.