What does value creation actually look like for private equity investors operating in the Gulf region?
Value creation in the Gulf operates on two parallel tracks: portfolio optimization — determining where assets should sit and whether they can be consolidated under a single vehicle — and operational value creation, which targets top-line revenue growth, margin expansion through P&L cost initiatives, and working capital optimization. At the center of it all is cash: reducing accounts receivable and improving cash collections to unlock trapped liquidity that can then fuel further growth or acquisitions.
The region is now in a decisive new phase. After over a decade of deploying capital — first through sovereign vehicles like PIF, Mubadala, and QIA to kickstart domestic economic transformation, then increasingly attracting foreign investors to markets like Saudi Arabia's TADAWUL or Abu Dhabi's ADX — the priority has shifted. Over the last 12 to 24 months, harvesting and crystallizing the value of previously deployed investments has become the dominant agenda. The question is no longer only "how do we put capital to work?" but "how do we realize the returns?"
Working Capital Optimization
In the Gulf PE context, working capital optimization refers specifically to reducing accounts receivable and accelerating cash collections — unlocking cash that is trapped in the balance sheet rather than actively funding operations or growth. As Eyad Faraj frames it on Beyond the Deck: cash is king, and freeing it up is the first lever available to an incoming investor.
This operational shift also reflects a structural reality: many Gulf businesses have historically been family-owned or closely held, with CEOs accountable only to family board members. When international PE investors enter, they bring a fundamentally different set of expectations around governance, financial discipline, and return timelines — creating both friction and significant opportunity for value creation.
"This is a private business where CEOs never had to answer to anybody but himself and his family members who sit on the board. And all of a sudden, you have an international investor who says, I love what you've done with the business, but these are my ideas."— Eyad Faraj, Partner, Transaction and Investor Services Practice, Roland Berger
About Eyad Faraj
Eyad Faraj
Partner, Transaction and Investor Services Practice · Roland Berger
Eyad Faraj is a partner at Roland Berger within the transaction and investor services practice, based in Bahrain and active across the entire GCC. His perspective on Gulf investment dynamics is built on genuine multi-angle experience: before moving into strategy consulting, he worked across capital markets and investment banking, giving him direct exposure to how capital is structured, raised, and deployed — not just how it is analyzed from the outside. Originally from Bahrain, Faraj has also worked outside the region, which gives him the dual vantage point of a local who understands the cultural and governance realities of Gulf businesses, and an international practitioner who can benchmark them against global PE standards. This combination makes him a particularly credible voice on the mechanics of value creation in a market where family ownership structures, sovereign investment vehicles, and newly arriving foreign capital all intersect.
See also
Historically, Gulf capital was deployed by the public sector into hydrocarbon-based infrastructure, and cross-border investments outside the respective Gulf countries dominated the early phase. Over the last decade, the focus has shifted toward domestic economic diversification, with non-oil GDP becoming the key benchmark for measuring success.