RIYADH: Saudi Arabia led Gulf Cooperation Council dealmaking in 2025 as Middle East mergers and acquisitions strengthened, with strategic investors accounting for 61 percent of insured deals, a new report showed.
The Kingdom has emerged as a frontrunner in the region in this sphere, with its economic diversification agenda underpinning a surge in strategic, high-value transactions, according to insurance broker and risk advisory firm Marsh.
Its Middle East findings align with broader global trends outlined in its 2025 Transactional Risk Insurance Year in Review, which shows M&A activity rebounded sharply, with total deal value approaching $5 trillion and rising demand for risk mitigation tools to support larger and more complex transactions.
Nirav Modi, private equity and M&A leader at Marsh Middle East and Africa, said: “Transactional risk solutions are increasingly central to dealmaking in a region shaped by strategic capital and long-term transformation.”
He added: “Saudi Arabia in particular, is setting the pace largely driven by its ambitious diversification agenda under Vision 2030, which is driving a new wave of complex, high-value transactions across sectors.”
Modi said that despite a more complex global backdrop, demand remained strong for solutions supporting large-scale dealmaking across Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf.
The region has diverged from global insurance pricing trends, maintaining historically low premium rates even as costs rose elsewhere. Pricing increased by 16 percent in North America, 5 percent in Europe and 8 percent in Asia, boosting the Middle East’s appeal for structuring transactions using warranty and indemnity insurance.
Domestic transactions led activity at 44 percent, while outbound deals represented 32 percent and inbound transactions 24 percent, indicating continued cross-border engagement.
Deal sizes in the region also reflected sustained scale, with a median transaction value of $390 million and several deals ranging between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion.
The report also highlighted the scale and sector breadth of activity across the Middle East and Africa, with Marsh placing $1.5 billion in transactional risk insurance limits in 2025 and an average deal size of $438 million.
Activity spanned key sectors including energy, technology, financial services, industrials, real estate, education and healthcare, while buyer-side policies dominated at 82 percent of transactions, underscoring continued demand for protection among acquirers.
Marsh reported more than 100 warranty and indemnity insurance inquiries across the Middle East and Africa during the year, underscoring growing market familiarity and adoption among investors and advisers.
Despite rising pricing across global markets — including a 16 percent increase in North America, 5 percent in Europe and 8 percent in Asia — the Middle East remained an outlier, offering comparatively low premium rates.
A separate PwC report released in February also pointed to a broader regional rebound in dealmaking, noting that Middle East M&A volumes rose 33 percent year on year to 635 completed transactions in 2025, returning activity to 2022 levels.
It noted that domestic and intra-regional transactions were the main drivers, with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt among the most active markets, supported by resilient economic fundamentals, strong sovereign balance sheets and deeper regional integration.
