On 30 October 2018, the president of the UAE issued the highly anticipated Federal Decree-Law No. 19 of 2018 concerning Foreign Direct Investment (the UAE FDI Law).
This reform will simplify foreign direct investment, with the aim to boost the economy in the UAE region and will have an impact on the existing corporate structures, which might be reviewed in light of the new regulatory framework.
As of today foreign investors may hold not more then 49% of the corporate capital of limited liability companies in mainland UAE, while the remaining 51%shall be owned by a UAE national or a company that is fully owned by UAE nationals. The reform will limit such constraints, providing for the identification of specific industries not bound (or bound to a lesser extent) by those constraints.
Find here more details on the reform by our Africa Team.