Oil-rich Gulf states are set to stay on the international acquisition trail this year after they spent a record $83bn buying foreign companies last year, about twice as much as in 2006.

At least 173 corporate transactions took place last year, according to mergers and acquisitions tracker Zephyr. The actual level of acquisitions would have been much higher as details on another 108 cross-border deals were not disclosed.

The $83bn of deals represents just 1.7 per cent of overall global M&A last year, as measured by Dealogic. But the influence of Gulf investors is rising as they participate in high-profile deals including capital injections into financial institutions such as Citigroup and UBS.

Further deals are expected this year as continued high oil prices boost the spending power of the six states in the Gulf Cooperation Council region.

“If oil prices stay where they are, the surpluses in this region will increase and the sovereign wealth funds [will] continue to invest abroad,” said Henry Azzam, chief executive of Deutsche Bank in the Middle East. “How much depends on what happens to the oil price.”

Gulf investors are set to step up acquisitions in Asia and emerging markets, according to Anais Faraj, head of Middle Eastern investment banking for Nomura, with a confluence of economic and political interest likely to increase the deal flow between the Gulf and Asia. Dubai International Capital’s recent investment into Sony, he said, illustrated the ability of regional players to access often closed markets in Asia.

“The Gulf will move to invest in the Bric [Brazil, Russia, China and India] countries,” he said. “We should see lots more investment into Latin America, Asia, especially India and China, with some more into Africa.”

With oil prices more than quadrupling since 2002, the GCC members had expanded their portfolio of foreign assets by a third to a conservative estimate of about $1,500bn, analysts said.

In 2007, the biggest deal came from petrochemical producer Sabic, which bought GE’s plastics business for $11.6bn. Kuwait Petroleum Corporation made the biggest overseas investment by a Kuwaiti group with a $9.5bn deal to buy 50 per cent in a joint venture that owns the plastics business spun out by Dow Chemicals.