Legal advisory services can spell the difference between the success and failure of companies in the UAE. You know how the regulatory landscape constantly changes and evolves. Even in their home countries, businesses can still get in trouble with their governments for violating obscure regulations. Corporations and legal entities branching out in unfamiliar territory are even more vulnerable to committing potentially expensive or disastrous mistakes due to their unfamiliarity with the land’s laws and regulations.
Therefore, company formation in the UAE is something organisations and individuals must plan carefully. It is true that business setup in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and other parts of the UAE brings many advantages. However, one should be prudent enough to conduct legal due diligence and ensure legal compliance in everything while taking advantage of all the benefits available from government licensing and legal structuring options.
A legal advisory team experienced in the UAE and Dubai company formation will help you strike this delicate balance and help ensure your business success in the UAE.
What corporate legal advisory services do I need when doing business in the UAE?
The type of legal advice you need depends on the type of business you are engaged in and your business activities. For instance, company formation in a UAE free zone has different legal ramifications than mainland company formation and offshore company setup.
At the very least, you need the help of your corporate legal advisor on government licensing matters and obtaining intellectual property protection for your patents and trademarks. You will also need help framing comprehensive legal policies and procedures that will define your operations in the context of the UAE legal and regulatory landscape, including the country’s employment laws and regulations.
What is Ultimate Beneficial Owner Advisory?
Ultimate Beneficial Owner Advisory is a legal advisory service that will help your company comply with the UAE government regulation requiring the submission of Beneficial Owner Data. Specifically, all companies registered in the UAE, even those registered in the free zones, must identify and submit their Beneficial Owner data to the relevant licensing authority.
This regulation is part of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation in the UAE. An ultimate beneficial owner is a natural person. He ultimately owns or controls the legal entity or person registered in the UAE. It is on his behalf that transactions are conducted, or he is someone that owns or controls at least 25% of company shares. The ultimate beneficial owner may own or control the legal person or shares directly or indirectly through a chain of legal entities.
When do I need Legal Due Diligence advice?
You need to conduct legal due diligence when preparing to acquire an existing company in the UAE to ease your entry into the UAE market. It is also essential if you plan to purchase an asset in the UAE, for instance, real estate for your warehouse.
Your legal due diligence advisory team will help you gather in-depth data and information on your target company’s existing obligations and legal impediments and liabilities, if any. They can conduct stock audit services or obtain the services of auditing firms in Dubai or elsewhere in the UAE, as needed, to perform the necessary external, financial and statutory audit of the company you wish to acquire. Based on the information it has gathered at the due diligence stage, it can provide you with objective and trustworthy recommendations. It should be able to tell you whether or not you should proceed with the merger and acquisition or renegotiate the price or the terms of purchase.
When it comes to buying real estate, your legal due diligence team should be able to uncover existing liens and holds on the property. It should also help you expose any and all disputes involving the property, such as tenancy disputes, development disputes and investor disputes. Your legal advisory team should also be able to establish the correct property valuation and, moving forward, assist you in making your offers and counter-offers.
In the end, conducting legal due diligence will minimise your risk and exposure and save you from spending money on unwise business decisions.
Why do I need Legal Structuring advice?
If you need help determining the best legal structure for the company you are establishing in the UAE, you will benefit from legal structuring advice. You also need advice from a competent legal structuring advisory consultant if you have an existing company in the UAE that has been structured according to outdated regulations.
There are different legal forms of businesses that organisations can set up in the UAE.
A cursory examination of these various forms might reveal only minimal differences. However, as is often the case, there are usually obscure but crucial differences that only somebody who is an expert in local commercial laws will be able to identify as important in your context.
Likewise, in the UAE, government regulations are continually evolving, usually to make the UAE even more attractive to foreign investors and accelerate direct foreign investment. Organisations may have to restructure to take advantage of better benefits or avoid potential hindrances to doing business brought about by these new regulations. Legal structuring experts can advise you on how best to restructure your organisation for maximum value and minimum complications.
Talk to our UAE legal advisory specialists now.