US private equity firm Carlyle Group expects to complete a deal in Saudi Arabia by the end of the year, a senior executive said. He did not reveal details on the investment amount or the company the private equity firm was looking to invest in.

"We are still enthusiastic about investing in the GCC and hope to close a deal in Saudi Arabia before the end of the year," Firas Nasir, managing director for Carlyle and the executive in charge of the firm's Dubai office told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai.

Washington, DC-based Carlyle has nearly $90 billion under management and has been one of the few firms carrying out deals in the wider Middle East region, where private equity activity has grown scarce since the global financial crisis.

Carlyle's co-founder David Rubenstein last month said the firm is still looking at deals in the Middle East region and the unrest has not yet had an impact on the private equity firm's portfolio companies there.

The firm has a fund dedicated to investing in the Middle East and North Africa.

The private equity firm acquired a 40-percent stake in Medical Park, Turkey's second-largest healthcare services company, at the end of 2009.
   
In March last year, it bought a 30-percent stake in Saudi Arabia's General Lighting Company, the kingdom's largest lighting fixture manufacturer.

 Abu Dhabi investment fund Mubadala took a 7.5 percent stake in Carlyle in September 2007. The private equity firm has been bulking up its business, with a recent deal to buy Dutch-based private equity fund of funds AlpInvest Partners, Europe's largest. That followed a deal in December to buy a majority stake in hedge fund Claren Road Asset Management.  - Reuters