Middle East Acquirers Find Few U.S. Targets

Firms and companies based in the Middle East completed just $557 million in U.S. acquisitions last year, less than acquirers based in every other region of the world except Africa, according toZephyr, a worldwide deal-tracking database. Investments from the Middle East have been under scrutiny because of the political uproar surrounding the acquisition of U.S. port operatorPeninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.byDubai Ports World.

In the last six years, Middle East acquirers--excluding Israel--completed $8.4 billion in U.S. acquisitions, according to Zephyr. Some of the largest deals involve investors based in Saudi Arabia.Kingdom Holdings Companymade a $1 billion investment inCitigroupand another $450 million in then-namedAOL Time Warnerin 2002. Last year,Arcapita Bankacquired a $100 million majority interest inFalcon Gas Storage, a natural gas storage company. In comparison, last year alone European investors spent more than $57 billion on U.S. targets. Asia-based investors completed deals worth $9.8 billion. Investments from Africa totaled a mere $22 million.