UAE family businesses must register on new Unified Family Businesses Registry

Abu Dhabi: The UAE Ministry of Economy launched a unified registry for family businesses on Wednesday, highlighting four new cabinet resolutions that will enhance the governance of these companies in the country.

Announcing the registry and its procedures, Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy emphasised about the importance of this sector to the economy. While family businesses account for 70 per cent of the private sector companies globally, they account for 90 per cent of all private sector business in the UAE.

In the UAE, the sector contributes 40 per cent of the national GDP.

In line with the UAE's economic vision for 2031, the new legislations and tools aim to boost the role of these family-owned enterprises towards achieving the national goal to double the country's GDP to Dh3 trillion by the next decade in accordance with the ‘We the UAE 2031’ vision.

The Ministry outlined the registration process which includes the following steps:

The resolution also stipulates the procedures and conditions for deregistering a family company from the Unified Registry upon its request. As per the cabinet decision, there are two scenarios that call for the deregistration of a family company: either at the request of an interested party or by a decision from the competent authority.

Buying back shares

Abdullah Ahmed Al Saleh, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy, also detailed the process for buying back of shares by families. 

Shares can be bought back if:

Al Saleh confirmed that these new resolutions will offer greater flexibility and facilitation for the operations of family businesses in the UAE, supporting the expansion of their operations across various sectors.