Legal Advisors, Abdulaziz Alajlan & Partners alongside Baker McKenzie, London have advised Saudi shopping mall giant Arabian Centres Company on its $748 million IPO, with an implied market capitalization of $3.3 billion, making it the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s largest IPO in four years. The deal, which was announced in April, closed on 20 May 2019.
Global M&A deal values soared in 2018, rising by 19% to US$4 trillion compared to 2017 values, although deal volumes dropped by 8% versus the previous year. Middle East market activity also remained robust, with a 50% increase in deal value for full year 2018, according to the latest report by global law firm Baker McKenzie*.
Cooling macro economic drivers will mean that transaction activity next year will be marginally down on 2018 pulled back by weaker European markets reveals the fourth Global Transactions Forecast issued by Baker McKenzie and Oxford Economics (OE).