Riyadh – Mubasher: Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are projected to rise in Saudi Arabia over the next two years, a new report has shown.

The sectors, which are most likely to see such transactions are: automotive, real estate, transportation, retail and food services, construction and industrials, and materials, KPMG Al Fozan & Partners said.

Since the start of 2018, M&A activities have witnessed a strong performance as transactions exceeded $1 trillion in the first three months of the year, compared to $749 million in the year-ago period.

The Saudi auditing services provider further noted that the rise in M&A deals would lead to an improvement in companies’ financial situations.

Abdullah Al-Fozan, chairman of KPMG MESA and KPMG Saudi Arabia, noted two types of M&A deals which he expects to take place in the Saudi market in the next couple of years.

He specified “M&A activity driven by a consolidation anticipated to happen in certain sectors of the private sector and M&A activity driven by increased investors’ appetite to participate in sectors expected to become the engine of the

Kingdom’s future economy” as these two types of anticipated deals.

The top KPMG official named other sectors where he expects major improvement, including: sports, recreation, consumer retail, education, technology, social infrastructure, healthcare, and financial services.