Family-owned businesses represent a large part of the UAE business community and contribute significantly to the growth of the economy of the UAE and the GCC. Many of these businesses have grown quickly with wide-ranging and often very ambitious investment goals and opportunities at their disposal. The logical plan for many is to expand across the Middle East and into the international arena.
For many years, Hadef & Partners has been, and continues to be, the trusted adviser to many of the largest and most successful family businesses in the UAE and the GCC, supporting their diversification into major sectors. We have helped guide and advise many of these companies throughout the entire lifecycle of their businesses, attending to their structuring and expansion needs, and navigating them through some of the challenges of succession planning to unlock their potential for growth.
Drawing on a combination of local and international expertise, our clients have access to over 35 years of knowledge and best practice that ensures any legal structuring or transition is a seamless process. Hadef & Partners has devised innovative corporate structures which enable UAE and GCC families to achieve their objectives, such as enabling and facilitating a smooth succession between current and future generations of bloodline family members without negatively affecting the performance and success of the business of the operating companies.
Our team consists of experienced corporate, commercial, banking and regulatory lawyers in addition to litigators who have full rights of audience in all UAE courts and tribunals.
We offer a comprehensive, entry to exit service which includes advising on:
- Family corporate structuring and restructuring including corporate structuring options
- the assessment of the main objectives of the family restructuring
- the preparation and review of any family protocol documentation
- DIFC and trust related matters in connection with the family restructuring
- Shariah Law aspects which may be relevant to the family restructuring
- corporate governance systems
- succession planning
- shareholder and management disputes
- changes to ownership and management structures
- shareholder rights issues and director’s duties
- regulatory strategies and compliance
- formation of legal entities
- commercial joint ventures, agencies, sponsorship and related arrangements
- UAE corporate laws and regulations