Gulf investors regain a quiet confidence in overseas investments, finds PwC report

PwC has published its new report titled ‘Resetting the Compass: Navigating success in deal-making for mature market sellers and high growth market buyers’. Companies in high-growth markets (HGM) invested US$161 billion into mature market companies between 2008 and 2012, outstripping their combined investment of US$151 billion in the opposite direction, according to the report. In 2013, the volume of outbound deals from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to mature markets ranked higher than the average reported over the last five years. The UK and Europe continue to hold strong appeal for GCC buyers, accounting for the majority of mature market deals from the GCC. The GCC region’s sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and state-owned enterprises continue to drive much of the outbound deal value but have cut back on the size of their overseas investments into mature markets since 2007/2008.