MEDIA RELEASE PR39309
Executives Optimistic About The Economy And Investment Prospects For The Gulf Region
MANAMA, Bahrain, Apr. 28 /CNW-AsiaNet/ --
An electronic version of the study and bios of Mr. Gibson, Dr. Al-Ammari
The fundamentals are in place for strong economic growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
countries through the remainder of this year and in 2011, according to a study released by Blake,
Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes), a Canadian-based international business law firm. The study,
undertaken for Blakes by mergermarket, is based on interviews with more than 75 corporate executives
from the GCC to gain their perspectives on the outlook for investment and trends in the region over the
near term.
"Blakes has opened offices in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, in association
with Dr. Saud Al-Ammari Law Firm, so we are interested in getting the views of
corporate executives in the region," said Brock Gibson, the Firm's Chair.
"Thirty-one per cent of the surveyed executives expect growth in the GCC to
come through continuing improvement in international economic conditions,
while 23 per cent expect it to come as a result of stabilization of oil
prices. At the same time, while the petroleum industry will remain a pillar of
the GCC economies, the region is clearly moving toward less dependence on this
still very vital industry. In fact, diversification is a recurring theme in
the study."
Eighteen per cent of respondents believe the growth of non-oil industries
will be the most important factor fueling economic growth, with 26 per cent
identifying telecommunications and 30 per cent identifying either natural
resources or transportation-based infrastructure as the sectors that will
develop most quickly. These sectors are also said to offer the greatest
opportunities for both domestic and foreign investors.
"Saudi Arabia and Qatar are consistently identified as the region's most
active players for both foreign-investment activity and intra-regional
activity, followed by the UAE, which will continue to be an important centre
of economic activity," said Dr. Saud Al-Ammari, Blakes Managing Partner, Saudi
Arabia and Gulf Region. "Forty-six per cent of the respondents expect joint
ventures (JVs) to be the most common deal structure over the next year.
However, a majority identified local ownership rights and legal/enforceability
risks as important factors to foreign investors. With offices on the ground,
this is certainly an area where Blakes can help."
China and India are identified not only as key markets for GCC-based
investors, but also as the countries that will lead foreign-investment
activity in the region over the next 12 months, exceeding both the United
States and Western Europe.
M&A and private-equity transactions will continue to be affected by the
global economic climate and the availability of liquidity, with the clear
majority of the study respondents - about 70 per cent - expecting
consolidation in the region to increase while 31 per cent expecting it to
remain constant over the course of the year. The study also highlighted that
most private-equity firms will be focused on restructurings and identifying
new opportunities, while M&A will be largely dependent on attractive
valuations of assets, with opportunities for distressed assets sales.
"There is definitely optimism about the prospects for this year.
Moreover, significant growth and increased liquidity is expected in 2011,"
said Dan Fournier, Blakes Chair for the Gulf Region. "Most corporate
executives believe that growth in the Islamic finance sector will continue,
but there will be considerable demand for general conventional debt as well."
About Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
At Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, we serve a diverse national and
international client base and our integrated office network provides clients
with access to the Firm's full spectrum of capabilities in virtually every
area of business law. Blakes has offices across Canada and in New York,
Chicago, London, Bahrain, Beijing and associated offices in Al-Khobar and
Shanghai. Thanks to our clients and the challenging work they generate, Blakes
was named "Canada's Law Firm of the Year" for 2009 by Who's Who Legal and, for
the second year running, "Law Firm of the Year: Canada" in the PLC Which
Lawyer? Awards. On December 16, 2009, the Financial Times and mergermarket
awarded Blakes the Legal Advisor of the Year Award and, for the second year in
a row, the Mid-Market Legal Advisor of the Year Canada Award. Blakes
consistently ranks as the top Canadian firm according to rankings in the
Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters and mergermarket M&A league tables. In April 2010,
mergermarket ranked Blakes the sixth busiest law firm in the world in global
mergers and acquisitions. More information on Blakes is available by visiting
twitter.com/BlakesNews.
About mergermarket
mergermarket is an independent Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)
intelligence service, with the largest network of dedicated M&A journalists on
the ground in 65 locations across the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the
Middle East and Africa. This team focuses on gathering actionable proprietary
intelligence, creating the only origination database of live targets and
bidders. mergermarket is also an unrivalled source of deal history. Public and
private deals across a range of sectors can be searched using an exhaustive
database. This proprietary intelligence and historical deals database is
available to over 145,000 individual subscribers from more than 1,500 of the
world's principal advisory firms, investment banks, law firms, private equity
firms and corporates. mergermarket is part of The Mergermarket Group, which
has over 550 employees worldwide and regional head offices in London, New York
and Hong Kong.
SOURCE: Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP; mergermarket
CONTACT: To book an interview, please contact the following:
International Media: Hassan Al-Jundi, Gulf-Hill & Knowlton, +973-17-533532,
hassan.aljundi(at)hillandknowlton.com; Chris Pratt, Gulf-Hill & Knowlton,
+973-17-533532, chris.pratt(at)hillandknowlton.com; Canadian Media: Jane
Shapiro, Hill & Knowlton, (416) 413-4770, jane.shapiro(at)hillandknowlton.ca;
Celia Bobkin, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, (416) 863-5806,
celia.bobkin(at)blakes.com
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