In the first nine months of 2025, the UAE was the most active in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) activity within the MENA region, with the highest volume and value of inbound transactions of 171 deals and a total value of $29 billion.
The EY MENA M&A Insights 9M 2025 report also credited this performance to the continued interest in the investor and the overall economic performance observed in the MENA region, which led to a 23 percent year-on-year growth in the dealmaking activity with a total of 649 deals worth $69.1 billion.
However, the report indicated that GCC was responsible for 500 of the same deals worth 65.9 billion.
Transactions between countries were still dominating, accounting for 54 percent of the volume and 76 percent of the value, which was high in the last five years over the past.
EY MENA Strategy and Transactions Leader, Brad Watson, said that “The MENA M&A market continues to demonstrate resilience this year. The rise in cross-border deal activity showcases the growing appetite of companies for international expansion and portfolio diversification.”
The acquisition of a 64 percent stake in Borouge by Austrian giant OMV and its subsidiary Borealis in March, announced at a total of $16.5 billion, added value to the performance of the UAE, making it the largest M&A in the region so far.
In the second position, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) acquisition of a 46.94 percent stake in the NOVA Chemicals located in Canada at a price of $6.3 billion, in terms made the largest deals in the global petrochemical space during the year.
The report indicated that the March acquisition of Primax S.A. by Saudi Aramco at $3.5 billion was the third-largest such deal of 2025 in the region.
The outbound deals recorded the highest contribution to the M&A transaction value during the first nine months, with 189 deals totaling $28.5 billion.
Therefore, the Saudi and the UAE were also the leading MENA bidders with 85 percent of the outbound deal value.
Canada had the best outbound deal value of the MENA at $7.1 billion; meanwhile, the UK was the most preferred target country in terms of deal volume.
In the first nine months of 2025, the region registered 160 inbound transactions totaling $23.8 billion, a 25 percent lift in volume and a 34 percent jump in value when compared to the same time last year.
The domestic M&As recorded 46 percent of the total deal volume in the first nine months, involving 300 deals and a combined disclosed value of $16.8 billion.
Deals of the mid-size range were considered to be high, and this is primarily due to the activity in the technology and provider care sector, as well as the banking and capital markets sector.
Sovereign wealth funds are among the largest MENA M&A drivers, which announced 22 deals during the period.
