UAE Business Valuation Multiples by Industry: 2026 Reference Table

By Bill Anderson, FCCA, Chief Executive Officer, Assetica · Published 2026-06-11 · Last reviewed 2026-09-23

Direct Answer: Most UAE businesses change hands at 3x to 8x normalised EBITDA, with wide variation by sector. Retail and F&B sit at 3x to 5x, trading and distribution 3x to 6x, logistics and manufacturing 4x to 7x, professional services 4x to 8x, real estate services 5x to 9x, healthcare 6x to 10x, financial services 6x to 12x, and technology and SaaS 8x to 15x. These are indicative reference ranges, not quotes.

This page is the reference Assetica points owners, advisers and buyers to when they need the UAE sector bands in one place, with the working shown. It sets out every published band, states exactly which earnings figure the multiple applies to, explains where the ranges come from, and describes what moves a specific business up or down inside its band.

Read the methodology note before you use a number from the table. These are reference ranges, not prices scraped from a database of private UAE deals, because no reliable database of that kind exists.

Last reviewed: September 2026. This page is reviewed periodically as rates, sector conditions and the tax position move.

UAE valuation multiples by sector: the 2026 reference table

All figures are multiples of normalised EBITDA for established, profitable businesses. Reviewed September 2026.

A sector that does not appear in the table is not outside the method. It is read against the listed sector whose income behaves most like its own, because the label on the trade licence does not decide the multiple; the shape of the income does. A firm whose work is won project by project and re-won every year behaves quite differently from one with retained clients, whatever both are called.

Early-stage and pre-profit businesses are not covered by this table. They are usually valued on revenue multiples or on evidence from a recent funding round. Asset-heavy holding vehicles and property-owning companies are usually valued on net asset value, not on earnings at all.

What the multiple applies to: normalised EBITDA, not reported profit

The most expensive mistake made with a table like this one is applying the multiple to the wrong number. Buyers and valuers do not multiply the net profit on your accounts. They multiply normalised EBITDA, and for a typical owner-managed UAE company the two figures are a long way apart.

• Net profit is what remains after interest, tax, depreciation and every cost the company happens to carry, including several that reflect the owner's personal arrangements. It is shaped by how the business is financed and how the owner draws money, both of which a buyer will change.
• EBITDA removes interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation so that operating performance can be compared between businesses with different financing and different asset ages.
• Normalised EBITDA goes one step further and adjusts EBITDA to what a new owner would actually earn: a market salary for the work the owner performs, the removal of genuinely one-off costs, market rent where the premises belong to a related party, and the removal of personal expenses run through the company.

Every normalisation has to be evidenced. Add-backs a seller cannot document are the first items a buyer strikes out, which is one reason audited accounts support a higher figure than the same performance presented in management accounts. Our plain guide to how many times profit a UAE business is worth works through the arithmetic line by line with an illustrative set of accounts.

One warning about mixing conventions. Very small owner-operated businesses are sometimes priced on owner's earnings, which adds the owner's own pay back rather than deducting a market salary. That produces a larger earnings figure and, correspondingly, a smaller multiple. The two conventions must never be combined, and the bands on this page assume the normalised EBITDA convention throughout.

Methodology: how these reference ranges are built

This matters more than the numbers, so it is stated plainly. The ranges on this page are indicative reference ranges drawn from three things: established valuation practice under recognised standards, the trading multiples of comparable listed companies adjusted for size and marketability, and the patterns visible across Assetica engagements. They are not a database of disclosed private transaction prices.

No such database exists for the UAE in any form that would survive scrutiny. Private company sale prices here are rarely disclosed, the sample that does surface is skewed towards larger and listed-adjacent deals, and headline figures frequently describe enterprise value while the seller remembers a very different net receipt. Any source quoting a precise average sold multiple for UAE private SMEs should be asked, directly, where the data comes from and how many transactions sit behind it.

What the ranges are anchored to instead:

• Recognised standards. Valuation work is prepared under the International Valuation Standards issued by the IVSC and the RICS Red Book, which set out how a basis of value is selected and how the market approach is to be applied and documented. The framework is published at the IVSC International Valuation Standards.
• Listed comparables, adjusted. A listed group trading at a given EV/EBITDA does not set the price of a private company in the same sector. Size, the absence of a ready market for the shares, and whether a controlling or minority stake is in question all pull the figure down before it can be applied.
• Engagement patterns. Where valuations, negotiations and completed processes cluster across a sector over time, without attributing any range to a named client or an identifiable deal.

The honest description of the output is a starting point that a valuer then has to defend for a specific business. Where the number has to be relied on by somebody else, the reference range is where the work begins, not where it ends.

Why the range inside a sector is wider than the gap between sectors

Look again at the table and the sector bands appear to be the main event. In practice they are not. The distance between the bottom and the top of a single band is usually greater than the distance between one band and the next, and that distance is where nearly all the value a seller can influence actually sits.

A trading company at the top of its band is priced more generously per dirham of earnings than a clinic sitting at the bottom of a higher one. Two logistics companies with identical EBITDA can be separated by two full turns. The sector sets the neighbourhood and the specific business decides the address.

The practical consequence is that the sector band is the least useful thing on this page for an owner planning ahead. The gap between where a business sits now and the top of its own band is a value-creation plan with a timescale attached, and most of it is fixable over two to three years. Our analysis of why one competitor sells for 8x and another for 4x takes that gap apart factor by factor.

What moves a business up or down inside its band

Five factors account for most of the movement, and they are the same across every sector in the table.

These are the same items, seen from the other side, as the discounts buyers apply before they make an offer. A seller who fixes them is not making the business look better. The business is genuinely less risky, which is why the multiple moves.

What would change these ranges

Reference bands are not permanent, and three forces move them.

• Interest rates and the cost of capital. Multiples and discount rates are two views of the same thing. When borrowing costs rise, the price a financial buyer can pay for a given stream of earnings falls, and acquisition debt becomes harder to raise. When they fall, the arithmetic reverses. The effect is felt first in the bands that depend most on debt-funded buyers. For a current anchor, the Central Bank of the UAE raised its Base Rate on the Overnight Deposit Facility by 25 basis points to 3.90 per cent, effective 17 September 2026, following the US Federal Reserve. The decision is published by the Central Bank of the UAE. A move of that size does not reprice a sector band on its own, but it does tighten what a leveraged buyer can pay for the same earnings.
• Sector cycles and buyer appetite. Bands widen and narrow with the number of credible buyers in a sector at a given moment. Healthcare consolidation, logistics capacity and technology retention have all moved their own bands in recent years without anything changing inside an individual company.
• UAE corporate tax. Corporate tax applies at 9 per cent on taxable income above AED 375,000, with 0 per cent below that threshold and 0 per cent for Qualifying Free Zone Persons on qualifying income. Post-tax cash flow is now part of the pricing conversation in a way it was not before, and the details are set out by the Federal Tax Authority at the FTA corporate tax pages. Our article on valuation and UAE corporate tax covers the mechanics.

Movements in the wider region can also pull UAE pricing, and we cover that separately in how UAE multiples compare across the GCC and MENA.

From the multiple to the money: enterprise value and equity value

A multiple of EBITDA produces enterprise value, which is the value of the operating business irrespective of how it is financed. It is not the amount a shareholder receives. The bridge between the two catches out more UAE owners than any other single point.

• Deduct borrowings, including bank facilities and any shareholder loans the buyer will not assume.
• Deduct debt-like items, which in UAE deals almost always include accrued end-of-service gratuity.
• Add surplus cash above what the business needs to trade.
• Adjust for working capital where receivables, stock or payables sit away from a normal level at completion.

The full bridge is set out in enterprise value versus equity value. Applying a sector band without running that bridge produces a number that will not match any offer letter.

How to use this page

Use it for four things, and stop short of the fifth.

• A sanity check on an offer or an approach. If an unsolicited offer sits far below the bottom of your band on properly normalised earnings, that gap is the thing to ask about.
• Planning. Establish where you sit today, identify which of the five factors is holding you down, and work out what two years of attention would be worth in turns of EBITDA.
• Testing a broker's number. A figure quoted at the top of a band before anyone has examined your books is a marketing position, not a valuation.
• Framing a conversation with a partner, a lender or a family member. A published band with a stated methodology is easier to discuss than a number with no origin.

What it will not do is produce a figure someone else has to accept. For that the work has to be done on your specific business, with the normalisations documented and more than one method applied. To put your own figures through the same bands, the business valuation calculator applies them to your EBITDA, add-backs and net debt and adjusts for owner dependence and customer concentration. Before a sale, a visa application or a financing, the valuation readiness checklist gets the documents in order first.

When a reference range is not enough

A band is a planning tool. It stops being sufficient the moment a third party has to rely on the number.

• A sale or acquisition, where every assumption will be tested in due diligence and add-backs will be challenged individually.
• The UAE Golden Visa, where the GDRFA company route requires the applicant's share to be worth at least AED 2 million, evidenced by a certified financial report from an accredited UAE audit firm.
• UAE corporate tax and transfer pricing, where related-party transfers have to be priced at arm's length market value and the working has to be retained.
• Shareholder disputes, partner exits and court proceedings, where the method, the basis of value and the independence of the valuer will all be examined.

In each of these an independent report prepared to IVS and the RICS Red Book is the requirement, using more than one method and documenting every normalisation. Assetica does not audit and does not broker deals, so it has no interest in the figure being high or low. Allow five to seven working days from complete documents. Where you are against a deadline, two to three.

How this page is maintained

These ranges were reviewed in September 2026 and are reviewed periodically as rates, sector conditions and the tax position move. Nothing on this page is a quotation, an opinion of value, or a statement about any identifiable transaction. Where a band changes, the change is made here rather than left to spread through older articles, which is why this page is the one we link to from the rest of the site.

If you want to know where your business genuinely sits inside its band rather than where the sector average sits, that is a specific piece of work. Explore our business valuation services or book a short scoping call.

The bands on this page are indicative reference ranges drawn from valuation practice, adjusted listed comparables and engagement patterns. 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.

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 scoping call. Standard reports are issued in five to seven business days.

Related Guides

• How Many Times Profit Is a Business Worth in the UAE? A Plain Answer
• Enterprise Value vs Equity Value: The Difference That Decides What You Actually Get Paid
• The AED 6 Million Revenue Business That Was Worth Almost Nothing (And the AED 1.5 Million One Worth More)
• Business Valuation Methods Explained: DCF, Market Multiples and Asset-Based
• How UAE Trading and Distribution Businesses Are Valued