Investors from all over the world have turned to the Middle East, where stock markets are booming. Dubai and to Abu Dhabi record explosive activity in initial public registrations and companies raising unimaginable sums at a time when the climate in Europe remains anemic. According to the Global Private Capital Association, $600 million was invested in the region in 2018.

A related report by the Financial Times specifically mentions data analytics company Presight AI, whose shares surged on Monday, the first day of trading on the Abu Dhabi market, when it raised $496 million in an initial public offering while its offering was exceeded 136 times. After all, two weeks ago Adnoc Gas raised $2.5 billion in the largest initial public offering in UAE history. According to EY, over the past year, a total of Stock markets in the Middle East and North Africa recorded a record 51 initial public offerings, raising a total of $22 billion. This represents a 179% increase from 2021 levels, and as commented by Miguel Azevedo, Citigroup’s senior executive for the Middle East and Africa , speaking to a British newspaper, the area “is now on the radar of investors.” He emphasizes that after the pandemic, “a lot of people settled in the area and there were a large number of initial public registrations when nothing else was happening in the rest of the world.”

Last year, fund managers invested $19.8 billion in 191 deals in the Middle East.

Other bank executives say the feverish import activity in the region’s stock markets is linked to financial sector regulatory reform, a series of privatizations, oil and natural gas prices, and political stability. to the region. Speaking to a British newspaper, Sami Cajello, a consultant at Morgan Stanley, noted that “the situation in the region has calmed down and there are no more permanent unrest of the past, and the high price of oil is also helping.” The region is growing rapidly in the eyes of international investors as Saudi Arabia rebuilds its economy in an attempt to phase out oil under Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious plan, the emirate is attracting financial institutions to Dubai’s commercial hub and oil market. wealthy Abu Dhabi, and tiny Qatar doubled its natural gas exports.

In particular, for Saudi Arabia, the most significant deal was the initial public offering of shares of Aramco, the kingdom’s leading oil company, worth $29 billion in 2019. This initial public offering sparked a series of IPOs through 2022 that hit record levels. Over the past five years, Saudi Arabia’s market capitalization has grown by about 475%. And according to the regulator, the number of companies listed in the Saudi Arabian market now stands at 269, down from 188 at the end of 2017.

Senior U.S. capital market executives, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the FT it was “somewhat similar to what happened in Europe and the UK in the mid-1980s, when privatization spurred IPOs.” Moreover, Dubai’s successful fight against the pandemic has attracted a large number of billionaire cryptocurrency investors and business leaders who have rushed to take advantage of the open economy. And many of them decided to stay in the area and convinced their companies to follow them. Meanwhile, last year fund managers invested $19.8 billion in 191 deals in the Middle East. As a result, the wider region of the Middle East is now the only part of the world that recorded an increase in investment value in 2022 compared to the previous year.