Founders, management teams, and investors spend years building businesses. Eventually, there comes a stage where you consider an acquisition, a merger with a strategic partner, a fundraise to scale operations and invest in lucrative opportunities, or a full equity sale to exit.
The GCC’s deal market, led by the UAE and Saudi Arabia, is now more active and sophisticated than ever. The question is no longer whether M&A advisors add value. It’s what their absence costs you when they’re not in the picture.
How did the GCC Deal Market Perform in 2025?
According to EY’s MENA M&A Insights 2025 report, the region recorded 884 transactions totalling $106.1 billion. This was a 26% year-on-year increase in volume and 15% increase in value, with the GCC alone recording 685 transactions worth $102.1 billion last year.
The UAE and KSA together captured 59% of MENA investments, while also contributing 66% of total regional deal activity as investors – cementing their position as the GCC’s twin engines of M&A.
The three largest transactions were based around the UAE – Australian oil giant OMV and Borealis’ $16.5 billion acquisition of a 64% stake in Borouge, followed by the $13.8 billion acquisition of Modon Holding by L’IMAD Holding Company, and Multiply Group’s $7.7 billion stake in 2PointZero.
Sovereign wealth funds, family conglomerates, venture capitalists, and international private equity are all active – and are equipped with specialist advisory firms that lead their deals.
The M&A Advisory Process: A Technical Breakdown
1. Business Valuation
Every transaction begins with a defensible valuation. Depending on your industry, Kuvera’s M&A advisory team typically applies these methodologies in parallel: Discounted Cash Flow (DCF), trading and transaction multiples such as EV/EBITDA or EV/Revenue of relevant peers (with applicable discounts) as part of the market-approach.
Other methods deployed include the venture capital (VC) method in the case of technology companies, and replacement cost methods where R&D cycles are high and business returns arrive over a longer period of time than usual, 3 to 5 years and above. For capital-heavy businesses and traditional industries, the asset-based approach is incorporated.
The business plan, management forecasts, stage or fundraising round of the business, market growth factors, regional economic indicators, and size of the business compared to its peer landscape, are key considerations while applying weightages to methods and triangulating the final value opinion, i.e. the valuation.
2. Due Diligence (Financial, Commercial, Market, and Technical)
This is where most deals stall. A comprehensive process covering quality of earnings, working capital, off-balance sheet exposures, customer concentration, management risk, market conditions, and customer and contract health. Vendor due diligence – commissioned proactively by the seller – is increasingly common in the GCC as it reduces re-trading risk and accelerates timelines with buyers. Buy-side due diligence is commissioned by investors and firms acquiring other businesses.
One key aspect includes the normalization of EBITDA for target businesses and even during vendor due diligence. This is done by removing related-party transactions, major non-recurring expenses, one-off business events; critical to create a clean earnings presentation.
3. Confidential Marketing & Outreach
Your advisor prepares the information memorandum, teaser document, and pitch decks that are distributed to qualified buyers under NDAs. Goldman Sachs topped the MENA M&A adviser league table for the first nine months of 2025, as per LSEG, advising on deals worth a combined $104 billion – a clear signal of the institutional competition now defining this market. This is evidence of the clear capability of investors and M&A advisors in the UAE, KSA, and broader GCC.
4. Deal Structuring
The advisor structures the transaction beyond the investment ask or valuation – earnouts tied to post-close performance, equity rollovers, staged consideration, and tax-efficient holding structures under frameworks (such as DIFC, ADGM, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Singapore, and more) for cross-border deals.
5. Negotiation & Closing
Once the business is ready for sale, and the investor shows strong interest, the advisor manages EOIs, Term Sheets, and SPAs through to close. As of 31 March 2025, under the UAE’s new mandatory merger control regime, qualifying transactions must be filed with the Ministry of Economy and cannot close without prior clearance. Notification is now required at least 90 days before closing, up from 30 days previously, making early regulatory planning essential for any M&A transaction with a UAE nexus.
What are Some Key Considerations?
Mispriced valuations, missed regulatory filings, and weak due diligence responses routinely cause deals to collapse or values to be re-traded.
Kuvera’ s leadership team has been present in the UAE for 25+ years and advising companies, Groups, and investment funds (VC, PE, Family Offices) across the broader GCC – bringing the M&A transaction advisory experience, regulatory fluency, and regional relationships that make the difference when it matters most.
Finally, When Do You Need an M&A Advisor?
When it comes to structured and complex transactions in the UAE or KSA, advised deals consistently outperform on valuation, deal certainty, and time-to-close. PitchBook’s latest figures show global M&A activity surged nearly 40% to a record $4.9 trillion in 2025 – the most competitive dealmaking environment in a decade. In markets this active, unadvised companies don’t just leave money on the table, they frequently don’t reach the table at all.
Boutique advisory firms have also made quality M&A advisory far more accessible than before, well beyond the legacy consulting market.
Kuvera Consulting advises on M&A transactions across the UAE, KSA, and GCC. For a confidential discussion, reach us at contact@kuveraconsulting.com.
Authors:
Vivek Batra
Founder & CEO
Pranav Batra
Director – Client Relations & Marketing