"We're acquiring a 75 percent stake in a regional power company, 75 percent in a business services company, a 51 percent stake in a regional healthcare firm and 100 percent of a regional oil and gas company," Karim El Solh said on the sidelines of a private equity conference in Dubai. 

He added that the company aimed to close the deals, centered on the Gulf, Egypt and Jordan, during the first quarter of 2012, but declined to provide any further details. 

However, while the executive believes the current marketplace was attractive for private equity, Gulf Capital will miss the target, outlined in June, of investing 50 percent of its Private Equity Partners Fund II by the end of 2011.

"We're currently 38 percent invested and we'll cross the 50 per cent mark when these deals are closed by the end of the first quarter," he said. 

"It's interesting times. We're seeing better deal flow at lower valuations, better businesses and with no competition." 

The Private Equity Partners Fund II closed last year with $533 million in commitments. 

Gulf Capital, which currently has around $1 billion of assets under management, is planning to exit two investments in 2012, including its stake in Gulf Marine Services (GMS) — a regional jack-up and support barge company — El Solh said in September.

Private equity investments saw a sharp drop in the last couple of years with investors backing out of capital calls, sellers demanding higher prices than buyers were willing to pay and increasing competition from family groups hampering growth.  

In July, Gulf Capital and another regional PE firm Amwal AlKhaleej sold their stakes in Maritime Industrial Services in a $336 million deal to Lamprell Plc in one of the rare private equity exits from the region.