Egypt's mergers and acquisitions market expanded sharply in 2024, with deal volume rising 27.3% over the prior year as foreign investors increased their activity across the country's economy and the financial sector emerged as one of the most active destinations for inbound capital, according to data from Baker McKenzie and LSEG published in a report released in February 2025. The figures confirm that Egypt's M&A market gained significant momentum during the year, driven by a broadening pool of buyers and a wider range of transactions across sectors.
The financials sector recorded 13 inbound deals during 2024, placing it second only to materials, which registered 14 transactions. The prominence of banking and financial services as an M&A destination reflects the strategic interest that regional and international investors have been developing in Egyptian financial institutions, driven by the country's large population, relatively low banking penetration and the reform measures the Egyptian authorities have pursued to stabilise the macroeconomic environment.
DEAL COUNT RISES, AVERAGE VALUE FALLS
Despite the increase in deal volume, average transaction value fell from USD 30.4 million in 2023 to USD 20.5 million in 2024. The decline in the average deal size alongside the rise in deal count indicates that 2024 activity was characterised by a larger number of smaller and mid-sized transactions rather than a small number of high-value mega-deals. That pattern can reflect a democratisation of M&A activity in which a wider range of buyers — including regional private equity, family offices and strategic investors from the Gulf — enter the market at deal sizes that suit their individual capital deployment objectives.
The compression in average deal value may also reflect the pricing dynamics that followed Egypt's significant economic adjustments in 2024, including the depreciation of the Egyptian pound that altered the relative cost of acquiring local businesses from the perspective of dollar and euro-denominated acquirers. A weaker local currency reduces the foreign-currency cost of buying Egyptian assets, which can stimulate deal volume without necessarily translating into higher aggregate transaction values at the market level.
Baker McKenzie and LSEG's data covering the full calendar year provide a comprehensive view of Egypt's M&A market that goes beyond individual headline transactions to capture the underlying level of activity across sectors, deal types and acquirer geographies. The financials sector's second-place ranking by inbound deal count underlines how central banking and financial services consolidation has become to the country's overall M&A narrative, and it raises the question of whether the pace of financial sector transactions is likely to continue or accelerate in the periods ahead.
EMIRATES NBD AND BANQUE DU CAIRE DEAL
One of the most closely watched transactions in the financial sector was the initiation by UAE-based Emirates NBD of a bid for Banque du Caire, one of Egypt's state-owned banks. The approach, if completed, would represent a significant cross-border acquisition and a further instance of Gulf capital deploying into the Egyptian banking sector, reinforcing a trend in which Gulf sovereign wealth funds and financial institutions have used their capital strength to expand their regional footprint through strategic acquisitions.
The Emirates NBD approach to Banque du Caire illustrates the broader logic driving inbound financial sector interest in Egypt. The country's large and relatively underbanked population, combined with the government's economic reform agenda and the improving regulatory environment, presents a growth opportunity that well-capitalised Gulf financial institutions are well positioned to pursue. The 27.3% rise in deal volume suggests that the conditions for foreign investment in Egypt improved materially during 2024, and the financial sector's prominence in the inbound figures indicates that the banking system sits at the centre of that investment thesis.