Dubai Company Formation

Dubai is a vibrant Middle East trading hub attractive to international entrepreneurs. The following information will help you determine whether Dubai company formation is the optimum solution to fulfill your international business objectives:

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International entrepreneurs can own 100% of a Dubai company if it is located in one of the UAE Free Zones. For further information, visit our Dubai Free Zones page.

To encourage Dubai company formation, the Dubai government offers investor incentives, including low cost energy and good communications infrastructure. For more information, visit our Incentives to Set Up a Company in Dubai page.

A wide range of licenses are available depending on the type of business to be carried out. Some entrepreneurs obtain a professional trade license, which permits an entrepreneur to submit invoices for services but not reselling products, making it ideal for consultants.

The UAE is the world's 23rd most competitive economy, according to The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010. Therefore, international entrepreneurs enjoy a healthy, thriving business environment.

To support Dubai company formation, Healy Consultants can open corporate bank accounts with internationally banks such as HSBC, Standard Chartered and Citibank. However, Dubai corporate and personal banking products and customer service are of a poor standard.

Dubai company formation has no specific minimum capital requirements, after a decree was introduced to drop formal minimum capital requirements in the UAE. Companies face capital requirements dependent on factors such as the size, nature and goals of the business. In this way, small and medium enterprises benefit, as they may have been at a disadvantage when requiring a relatively high capital requirement.

Following Dubai company formation, our clients obtain Dubai residence and employment visas. For more information, kindly visit our Migration and Relocation services page.

To highlight the difficulty of Dubai company formation, a Dubai LLC requires a UAE national to hold a 51% shareholding (although profit and loss distribution can be mutually agreed between the shareholders, and the UAE national need not have a management role in the company). If the 49% shareholder in the LLC is a foreign corporate entity, the corporate documents of the foreign company (e g Certificate of Incorporation, Memorandum and Articles of Association, Board Resolution resolving to participate in a Dubai LLC and Power of Attorney in favour of the Dubai LLC manager) must be notarised and legalised in the country of incorporation of the parent company. In addition, these documents must then be legalised at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dubai and then translated into Arabic. These requirements contribute to the complexity and costs of Dubai company formation.

In addition to government incorporation fees, investors setting up a Dubai LLC are required to pay to the government 5% of the annual lease rent of the office premises (and at the time of annual renewal an additional 5% of the annual lease rent for the manager’s residence also becomes payable).

The UAE is negatively ranked as the world's 46th freest economy in the Heritage Organisation's 2010 Index of Economic Freedom, a measure of freedom enjoyed in  business, trade, monetary, financial, investment and labour markets.

It is difficult to incorporate a Dubai company unless your Firm enters an expensive lease to open a local office and employs local staff.

Dubai LLC - international entrepreneurs should budget for total engagement costs ranging from US$50,000 to US$60,000, depending on the range of professional services required, the industry type and the government license required. These fees include UAE sponsor fees, government fees, corporate bank account, virtual office fees and legal costs.

Dubai Offshore Company - international entrepreneurs should budget for engagement costs approximating US$15,000 for an offshore company in Dubai,  including corporate bank account and local virtual office.

Dubai Branch Company - international entrepreneurs should budget for engagement costs ranging from US$50,000 to US$60,000, depending on the range of the professional services required, the location of parent company and the rental of business premises.

UAE Free Zone Company - international entrepreneurs should budget for engagement costs ranging from US$31,900 to US$42,000 depending on Free Zone location, quarterly rental costs etc.

Dubai Airport Free Zone Company - international entrepreneurs should budget for engagement costs ranging from US$18,400 to US$33,500 including i) Free Zone Authority fees ii) working visas iii) Free Zone rental deposit iv) corporate bank account opening and v) Healy Consultants professional advisory fees.

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