Big or small, PE firms in the Middle East are faring much better than most other financial institutions in the region, despite the amount of “dry powder” — i.e. capital called or committed that is yet to be deployed — in the area. Nevertheless, sitting on a mountain of cash and not spending it because you don’t like what you see is more enviable then struggling to pay off your creditors. The phenomenon of dry powder is not just an effect of the financial crisis and the ensuing downturn, which started to take effect in the last quarter of 2008. Investments by PE firms began to make an about-face around the beginning of 2008. PE investments over the whole of 2008 saw a significant decrease in both number and size year-on-year by 22 and 31 percent respectively, the principle reason for this being that private valuations still seem to be
