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Deal Maker of the Year Awards 2013
WINNER - MATT ALABASTER DEAL: Gulf Capital acquires Chef Middle East
NAME: Matt Alabaster COMPANY: PwC POSITION: Partner TEL: +971 56 682 0584 EMAIL: matt.alabaster@ae.pwc.com WEBSITE: www.pwc.com/me
DEAL OVERVIEW
Matt is a partner in PwC’s Deals Strategy business in the Middle East, which focuses on growth strategy, market entry and transactions for clients across the region. He and his team cover North Africa, the Levant and the Gulf from bases in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh and Doha.
The Middle East region contains some of the world’s most diverse, challenging and rewarding markets. The social and political upheaval in some of the region is more than matched by less visible changes in consumer behaviour, industrial development, regulatory reform and business culture. Making informed decisions in this environment can be challenging, in particular considering the acute lack of publicly-available information on companies and markets.
With a multi-lingual and multi-skilled team that reflects the diversity of the Middle East, PwC’s Deals Strategy team works with clients to understand the challenges and opportunities of their specific target markets, to anticipate relevant trends, and ultimately to make investment decisions based on fact, not supposition. All of which reduces uncertainty in their clients’ business decisions, and maximises the chances of achieving a successful outcome.
In this example, PwC worked alongside Gulf Capital, one of the leading and most active alternative investment firms in the Middle East, on their acquisition of 100% of Chef Middle East
L.L.C (“Chef”), an importer and distributor of high-end, specialty and fine food products from around the world, with operations in the UAE, Qatar and Oman.
Matt led the PwC team that provided Gulf Capital with commercial due diligence, financial modeling and post-acquisition business plan development for Chef.
PwC’s work included site visits and interviews with over 50 restaurants and hotels in the UAE and Qatar to generate a primary dataset on which to base its work. PwC’s research identified restaurants’ purchase volumes, processes and criteria, and gathered direct feedback on Chef’s ‘share of wallet’ and market positioning.
Another key challenge is assessing how the relatively immature markets in the region are likely to develop. A starting point is to understand how the same industry has developed in mature markets. To this end, the deal team drew on specialist knowledge of the food distribution industry from PwC’s sector teams in the UK and Europe.
Going forward PwC see immense opportunity for investment into the Middle East region, with particular opportunities in Saudi Arabia and, in the medium term, Egypt. PwC are looking forward to continuing to help their clients enter, invest and grow across the region.
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PwC see immense opportunity for investment into the Middle East region, with particular opportunities in Saudi Arabia and, in the medium term, Egypt.
UAE
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