How to Value a Restaurant or F&B Business in the UAE

By Bill Anderson, FCCA, Chief Executive Officer, Assetica — 2026-06-26

Direct Answer: UAE restaurants and F&B businesses carry an indicative 3x to 5x normalised EBITDA, the lowest published band alongside retail. Earnings are thin and easily disturbed, the fit-out is worth far less than it cost, and the lease usually decides the deal. A single site that is only profitable because the owner works the pass sits at the bottom. A transferable multi-site concept with a long lease reaches the top.

F&B is one of the most traded business categories in Dubai and one of the most mispriced. Owners anchor on what the fit-out cost and what the tills take. Buyers pay for profit that continues after the owner hands over the keys. That gap is where most restaurant sales stall.

This guide sets out why F&B sits at the lower end of the published ranges, how buyers treat fit-out against goodwill, why the lease is the biggest swing factor, what aggregator revenue does to the margin, and what a buyer does with a restaurant that only works because the owner is in the kitchen. Assetica does not audit and does not broker deals, so it has no interest in the number.

What is a restaurant or F&B business worth in the UAE?

Restaurants and F&B carry an indicative reference range of 3x to 5x normalised EBITDA, the same band as retail and the lowest Assetica publishes. For comparison, healthcare and clinics sit at 6x to 10x on the same measure. These are indicative reference ranges, not quotes. For the full published table of sector bands, see our guide to UAE business valuation multiples and to how many times profit a UAE business is worth.

F&B sits low for structural reasons. Margins are thin, so a small move in food cost, rent or staffing swings the profit. Demand is discretionary and taste-driven. Almost nothing is contracted: no order book, no retainer, no renewal. Anyone with a lease and a licence can open across the road. And the asset base, however expensive, is immobile and specific to one address.

The gap inside the band is wide, and it is worth more to most owners than arguing about the band itself. On AED 850,000 of normalised EBITDA, the distance between 3x and 5x is AED 1.7 million.

Our guide to the discounts buyers apply before they make an offer shows what each weakness in the right-hand column costs, and why one competitor sells for 8x and another for 4x explains the same effect across sectors.

Fit-out value versus goodwill, and why owners overvalue the fit-out

Almost every restaurant sale starts with the same sentence: the fit-out alone cost more than that. It usually did, and it rarely matters.

A buyer is purchasing future profit, and the fit-out is a cost already incurred to generate it. The market does not reimburse a decision a previous owner made. Three things make restaurant fit-out worth far less on resale than on invoice:

• It is immobile. Extraction, grease traps, cold rooms, seating and the shopfront belong to that unit. Move out and the value stays behind or is stripped out at your cost.
• It is concept-specific. A buyer bringing their own brand will refit, and values only the infrastructure they can keep: the kitchen, extraction and services.
• It depreciates hard. Used commercial equipment, soft furnishings and finishes resell for a fraction of cost. See plant and machinery valuation.

Think of it as a floor, not a price. Where a restaurant makes little profit, the buyer is really buying a fitted unit with a lease, and the price gravitates towards what the assets and location are worth to someone else. Where the restaurant is genuinely profitable, the earnings multiple sits above that floor and absorbs the fit-out rather than adding to it. Recent, well-maintained kitchen infrastructure does help, by cutting the capital a buyer must spend on day one, which supports the top of the range rather than adding a separate line.

Structure matters too. Many F&B deals are asset transactions covering equipment, lease and goodwill rather than share purchases, which changes what transfers and what must be reapplied for. See asset deals and share deals.

The lease is the single biggest swing factor

In UAE F&B the lease often is the business. A restaurant is a location with a kitchen attached, and if the location is not secure, neither are the earnings. Four questions decide it, and all four should be answered in writing before a price is agreed.

• Remaining term. A buyer is paying a multiple of annual earnings. If fewer years remain on the lease than the multiple being discussed, the arithmetic does not work, and the buyer knows it.
• Renewal and escalation. Whether renewal is a right or a request, and how rent moves on renewal. A defined, capped escalation can be modelled. One left to the landlord's discretion is an open risk, and buyers price open risk.
• Assignment consent. Whether the landlord will consent to the lease moving to the buyer, on what terms, and at what cost. In malls, hotels and managed venues this can be a full re-approval of the incoming operator.
• What else the landlord controls. Operating hours, service charges, fit-out obligations, signage, and in some venues the concept and menu.

Rent is largely fixed while revenue is not, which is why an increase at renewal falls almost entirely on the profit. A valuer normalises rent to the contractual position a buyer will inherit, including any step-up already agreed, rather than the rent paid in the year being reviewed.

Delivery aggregators: real revenue, thinner margin

Aggregator revenue is genuine revenue and should be counted. It is also where owners and buyers most often talk past each other, because they look at different lines. The owner looks at gross orders. The buyer looks at what lands in the bank after commission, and then at what survives packaging, delivery-only items with a different food cost, and the promotional spend that keeps the listing visible. Commission is deducted before the money arrives, so heavy aggregator volume can show strong revenue growth and flat or falling profit at the same time. Our story on why revenue and value tell different stories covers exactly this pattern.

Beyond the margin, buyers weigh three risks. The platform, not the restaurant, holds the customer relationship, so there is no list to hand over. Commercial terms and listing visibility can change without the restaurant agreeing. And revenue that is almost entirely one platform is concentration risk of the same kind as a single dominant customer anywhere else.

The response is evidence rather than argument. Reconcile aggregator statements to the point of sale system and the bank, and present channel margins separately. A restaurant that can do this is treated very differently from one showing a single blended figure.

Concept and brand transferability

The question a buyer is really asking is whether the thing producing the profit can be owned by someone else. Some of it transfers cleanly. Some walks out with the seller.

• Transfers: a registered trade name and marks, documented recipes and specifications, supplier terms, training material and procedures, a following tied to the brand rather than a person, and a repeatable kitchen specification.
• Does not transfer: the founder greeting regulars, a head chef with no contract, informal supplier discounts, and goodwill living in one person's reputation.

The second list is not only a risk to the buyer, it is a ceiling on the seller. A concept that exists mainly as one person's craft still sells, but as a fitted unit with a customer base rather than as a brand. Documenting the system, putting the head chef on a proper contract and registering the brand are the cheapest value improvements in this sector. Our guide to what increases and decreases business value sets out the order to do them in.

Single site versus multi-site, and why a second site changes the buyer pool

The second profitable site is the most important step in F&B value, and not because it doubles the earnings. It changes who is willing to buy.

A single site attracts owner-operators: people buying themselves a job, funding it personally and negotiating hard. A second site that works proves what a single site never can, that the profit came from the concept and the system rather than one address, one chef and one owner. That brings in groups, franchise partners and investors, who are buying a platform they can extend.

A multi-site business also carries what a single site structurally lacks: a management layer. Once an operations manager sits above the site managers, the owner is no longer the system, and the normalisation adjustment for the owner's unpaid role shrinks or disappears. That lifts normalised EBITDA and the multiple together, which is why the same concept is worth disproportionately more with two sites than one.

Licences, permits and food safety approvals to confirm

F&B carries more approvals than most SMEs, and they do not all move with the business automatically. Food safety sits under Federal Law No. 10 of 2015, and in Dubai and Sharjah it falls under the respective municipal authorities, as set out on the UAE Government food safety page. Confirm every item below in writing with the issuing authority rather than assuming it:

• The trade licence and its listed activities, and whether they cover everything the restaurant does, including delivery and catering.
• Food establishment permits and municipality approvals, their renewal dates, and the change of owner process.
• Inspection and grading records, findings raised, and evidence they were closed.
• Food handler cards and the person in charge requirements for the team.
• Any alcohol, shisha, outdoor seating, signage or late-hours permissions, which are separate and often the hardest to replace.
• Mall, hotel or venue operator approvals, given independently of the landlord.
• The VAT position on the sale, where a transfer of a going concern may be treated differently from a sale of assets. See VAT on selling a UAE business and confirm your position with your tax adviser.

Staff accommodation, visa costs and seasonality in Dubai

Two cost lines are routinely understated in restaurant accounts, and both are real costs a buyer inherits.

The first is the full cost of the team. Kitchen and service staff are largely on employment visas, and the employer carries visa and medical costs, and in many operations accommodation and transport too. Where the owner houses staff in a property held outside the business, the cost is missing from the accounts and a valuer adds it back at a market rate. Accrued end-of-service gratuity is the related balance sheet item, commonly treated as debt-like in the bridge from enterprise value to proceeds. See enterprise value versus equity value.

The second is seasonality. Dubai trading is not flat across the year, and the pattern differs by concept and location: a beachside terrace, a mall food court and an office-district lunch operation do not share a calendar, and Ramadan and the summer months change trading hours and demand. A valuation works from full trading years, not an annualised strong quarter.

When the restaurant is only profitable because the owner works the pass

This is the defining problem of the sector. The owner is in the kitchen six days a week, runs the section, buys the produce, fixes the rota and takes drawings rather than a salary. The accounts show a profit. That profit is really unpaid labour.

A valuer resolves it by charging what it costs to replace that person. If the owner performs a head chef role and a general manager role, both are deducted at market rates, whether or not a salary was drawn. What remains is what the business earns, and in many single-site restaurants the answer is close to nothing.

When normalised EBITDA lands near zero, the earnings multiple stops being the tool. The business is valued as a fitted unit with a lease and a customer base, and the range comes from the asset and location floor. Buyers there are owner-operators buying a job, and they price it as one.

There is a route out, but it takes time. Hire and train the manager or chef, pay them properly, step back from the rota, and trade a full year with the cost in the accounts. Reported profit will fall. Value will rise, because for the first time it belongs to the business. Where a buyer doubts the transition will hold, part of the price is deferred against performance after completion; see earn-outs and deferred consideration.

A worked example: from restaurant accounts to an indicative range

The figures below are illustrative, chosen with round numbers to show the mechanics. They do not describe any real restaurant.

The owner here may have spent AED 2,000,000 on the fit-out and will feel AED 2,550,000 is an insult. The buyer is not disputing what was spent. They are paying for AED 850,000 of earnings that continue without the seller, and the fit-out is already inside that figure because it is what produces the trade.

These are enterprise values, not proceeds. Borrowings, equipment finance and accrued gratuity come off, surplus cash goes on, and working capital is adjusted at completion. Corporate tax sits below profit before tax so it does not change EBITDA, though at 9 per cent on taxable income above AED 375,000 it reduces the cash flows used in any discounted cash flow cross-check, as set out on the Federal Tax Authority corporate tax pages.

Put an indicative range on your restaurant

The Assetica business valuation calculator takes your EBITDA, add-backs, net debt and sector, applies the same published ranges, and adjusts for owner dependence and concentration. The headline range is free; the full breakdown is available if you leave your details.

Before you speak to a buyer, gather the lease and any assignment correspondence, the licence and permit file, three years of accounts reconciled to the till and the bank, and the aggregator statements. The readiness checklist lists the rest, the documents checklist covers the financial file, and our guide to selling a business in Dubai sets out the process. Buyers should read checking an asking price in Dubai first. A standard report is typically delivered in five to seven business days from complete documentation, or two to three expedited.

The multiple ranges and all worked figures in this article are indicative and illustrative. They are not a valuation of any business and should not be relied on for a transaction, a visa application, a tax filing or legal proceedings. Licences, permits and food safety approvals must be confirmed with the issuing authority.

Frequently Asked Questions

Speak to Assetica about Business Valuation

Assetica is an independent business valuation firm in Dubai. We do not audit and we do not broker deals, so the number carries no conflict. Read more about business valuation, or book a free scoping call. Standard reports are issued in five to seven business days.

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