In times of crisis come times of great opportunity, or so we are told. The proverb does seem to bear some truth, however, when applied to the regional private equity (PE) market. Perhaps for too long, PE activity has been focused on a few hotspots in the Middle East and North Africa and has neglected many of untapped or fundamentally solid areas. Now there is little choice when it comes to being picky; firms need to go where the opportunities are rife and many countries in the region are taking advantage of the newfound openness towards expansionism that has taken hold of the industry. The first country in the cross hairs seems to be Saudi Arabia. The usual criticisms of Saudi being a cumbersome and overly conservative market have turned out to be unfounded. Both Saudi Arabia’s central bank and its sovereign wealth fund (SWF) are coming out of
