Ala' Azmi Abumughli, Ahmet Faruk Aysan
This paper makes a comprehensive inspection of the rising Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) cases being declared in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Banks in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The GCC is acknowledged as a dynamic player in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially in the financial sector. Since the GCC Banks had occasionally been leveraging from M&A, this post-pandemic period was also confronted with the same approach. GCC banks utilized the existing M&A theories whereas each bank adapted a customized merger plan to achieve the targeted operational and financial objectives. The GCC region also endured declining prices in oil trade. This paper intends to explore the key benefits and challenges the GCC banking sector has been facing since the recent pandemic and sheds some light on a few practical examples by investigating the main rationales and insights for such M&As. Moreover, the paper highlights key benefits and challenges for bank M&As and paves the way for future studies in this field. This paper also attempts to investigate the key implications of some M&As that took place in the GCC during the past few years and assess the impact of these M&As on the overall banking industry. It was concluded that M&A was not solely caused by the latest challenges brought by the COVID-19 outbreak, but these factors have contributed to accelerating the bank's need to consolidate their resources, in addition to other specific motives on the operating conditions to the specific bank including the country overall risk. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the growth of M&As and digital transformation as a risk management technique.