Who Can Value a Business in the UAE, and Which Report Is Accepted

By Bill Anderson, FCCA, Chief Executive Officer, Assetica — 2026-09-23

Direct Answer: No single UAE licence makes someone the business valuer. The real test is whether the intended recipient accepts the report. The GDRFA company route asks for a certified financial report from an accredited UAE audit firm. Banks, the Federal Tax Authority, DIFC and ADGM courts and trade buyers each expect something different. Choose an author who is independent, credentialled and working to a recognised standard such as IVS or the RICS Red Book.

Ask around Dubai and you will hear half a dozen answers to this question. It has to be an audit firm. It has to be a RERA-registered valuer. Any chartered accountant can do it. Each answer is partly right, and each one produces rejected reports, because they all answer the wrong question.

The useful question is not who is permitted to write a valuation. It is who has to read it, and what that reader will accept. A report that satisfies a bank credit committee can be refused at a residency counter. The author, the standard and the recipient have to line up.

This article sets out who prepares business valuations in the UAE, what each author is suited to, where the conflicts sit, and an acceptance matrix showing what each recipient expects.

Who can value a business in the UAE?

Anyone can write down an opinion of what a business is worth. The owner can. A broker can. A spreadsheet can. What separates an opinion from a report that does its job is not permission, it is acceptance.

Three tests decide whether a valuation will hold up:

• Will the recipient accept it? The residency authority, the bank, the tax authority, the court or the buyer is the only audience that matters. Each one has its own expectation of who signs and what is shown.
• Is the author independent? A number prepared by the party who gains from that number being high, or low, carries less weight with every reader, and it is the first thing a challenger attacks.
• Does it follow a recognised standard? IVS, the RICS Red Book and IFRS 13 give the reader a framework to check the work against. A report with no stated standard gives them nothing.

Get all three right and the identity of the firm matters far less than owners expect. Get one wrong and the report is rework, whoever wrote it.

Is there a licence for business valuers in the UAE?

Not in the way people assume. There are registration regimes nearby, and they get mistaken for one.

Audit firms practising in the UAE are registered and regulated as auditors. Real estate valuers in Dubai are registered through RERA under the Dubai Land Department for property work. Neither is a licence to value the shares of an operating trading company.

Where the rules do bite, they name the evidence rather than the badge. The UAE Government sets out the investor category for the Golden visa in terms of capital and thresholds, and in Dubai the GDRFA company route asks for a certified financial report from an accredited UAE audit firm. That is a requirement about the author and the document, not a professional licence category called business valuer.

Ask what the recipient requires, in writing, before you appoint anyone, and confirm the current position with the relevant authority rather than relying on an article, including this one.

Who prepares business valuations in practice

Six kinds of author produce most of the valuations UAE owners deal with. Each has a proper use and a limitation worth stating plainly.

• Independent valuation firms. Suited to reports that someone else has to rely on: residency applications, tax positions, disputes, buy-outs and financial reporting. The limitation is that they do not run your transaction for you, so a sale still needs a broker or a corporate finance adviser alongside.
• Audit firms. Suited to work that requires a certified financial report, and to valuations tied to statutory accounts. The limitation is independence: a firm cannot sensibly audit a company and also opine on what that company is worth without a clear conflict, and some recipients will not accept a report from the incumbent auditor for exactly that reason.
• Corporate finance advisers. Suited to deal preparation, buyer targeting and negotiation support, where a defensible view of value informs strategy. The limitation is that fees are often success-linked, which is fine for advice and awkward for an opinion that has to look impartial.
• Business brokers. Suited to pricing a listing and reading live demand, which is real information no model produces. The limitation is structural: a broker earns on the transaction, so an appraisal from the party who needs a sale to happen is a marketing estimate, not an independent opinion.
• RERA-registered property valuers. Suited to land, buildings and property interests, which is specialist work. The limitation is scope: the registration covers property. A trading company that owns a warehouse is not a property valuation, though the warehouse inside it may need one.
• The owner. Suited to internal planning, sense-checking an approach and deciding whether a sale is worth exploring. The limitation is obvious to everyone except the owner: no third party accepts a number prepared by the person who benefits from it.

None of these is the wrong choice in general. They are wrong when used for the purpose that belongs to another. Our guide to choosing a business valuation firm in Dubai works through that matching exercise in detail.

Which report each authority accepts

This is the table to keep. It sets out who has to accept the report, what that recipient expects to see, and the standard usually applied.

Treat this as a starting map, not a rulebook. Authorities update their categories and document lists, and individual banks and buyers add their own conditions. Confirm your route before you commission anything. For the residency split in particular, read ICP versus GDRFA for Golden Visa valuations, and the ICP publishes its own golden residence information for applicants outside Dubai.

One row deserves a note. Corporate tax positions rest on the arm's length principle for related-party transactions, and the legislation and guidance sit with the Federal Tax Authority. Tax is charged at 9 per cent above AED 375,000 of taxable income and 0 per cent below it, so the value put on an intra-group transfer changes a real liability. See transfer pricing valuation in the UAE and our corporate tax valuation service.

Which standards a valuation report should follow

Four standards cover almost everything a UAE owner will meet. Knowing which applies tells you a great deal about who should write the report.

• IVS. The International Valuation Standards, issued by the International Valuation Standards Council, are the global framework for how value is defined, measured and reported. They apply across asset classes and are the default reference for business and share valuations.
• The RICS Red Book. The RICS valuation standards sit on top of IVS and add mandatory requirements on scope of work, independence, conflicts of interest and reporting. Where a reader wants assurance about process as well as method, the Red Book is what they are asking for.
• IFRS 13. The accounting standard for fair value measurement. It governs valuations prepared for financial statements rather than for a transaction, and it dictates disclosure of inputs and the fair value hierarchy.
• IPEV. The International Private Equity and Venture Capital valuation guidelines apply where a fund or a family office reports the value of unquoted holdings to its own investors. They interpret fair value for that specific reporting purpose.

Our explainer on IVS, RICS Red Book and IFRS 13 sets out how they interact, and valuation for financial reporting covers the IFRS side in practice.

Why independence decides whether the number is believed

A valuation is an opinion. Opinions are weighed by who gave them and what that person stood to gain. This is not a matter of honesty, it is how every reviewer, counterparty and judge assesses evidence.

The common conflicts are easy to spot once you look for them:

• A success fee tied to the deal completing, or to the valuation exceeding a threshold, so the author earns more when the number is higher.
• The incumbent auditor opining on the value of the company whose accounts it signs.
• A broker appraising the business it has been appointed to sell.
• An adviser valuing a company it also raised money into, where a lower figure would embarrass an earlier round.
• A report prepared for one side of a shareholder dispute without a stated basis, date or method.

The fix is structural rather than moral. Separate the valuation from the transaction, appoint an author with nothing riding on the outcome, and fix the fee in advance so it does not move with the answer. We set out that reasoning in why an independent valuation firm produces a different report, and in disputes specifically in valuation in shareholder disputes.

Questions to ask before you appoint a valuer

Six questions separate a report that will be accepted from one that will not. Ask them on the first call and write down the answers.

• Who signs the report, and what are their credentials? A named individual with a professional qualification, not a logo. Ask what happens if that person is asked to defend the figure later.
• Which standard will the report state? IVS, the RICS Red Book, IFRS 13 or a combination. If nobody can name one, that is the answer.
• Have your reports been accepted by this recipient before? Ask specifically about the GDRFA, the ICP, a particular bank, the FTA or a DIFC or ADGM matter. Experience with one recipient does not transfer to another.
• Do you carry professional indemnity cover? A report carrying real liability is prepared differently from one that does not.
• Is the fee fixed, and is it independent of the outcome? A fixed fee agreed in writing before work starts removes the obvious incentive problem.
• What happens if the report is queried? Ask whether clarification, supporting correspondence and a response to the recipient's questions are included or charged separately.

Before any of those calls, get your documents together. The business valuation readiness checklist lists what a valuer will ask for, and having it ready shortens the timetable and usually the fee.

What to do if a report has been rejected or challenged

Rejection is common and it is rarely about the number itself. Work through it in order rather than commissioning a second report immediately.

• Get the reason in writing. Most rejections are about format, the author, the valuation date or a missing reconciliation, not the figure. Fixing a format problem is far cheaper than redoing the work.
• Check what was actually measured. Enterprise value reported where equity value was required is a frequent cause, particularly on residency applications where the applicant's own share is the test.
• Check the author against the requirement. If the recipient asked for a certified financial report from an accredited UAE audit firm, an unsigned internal appraisal was never going to pass.
• Check the underlying records. Accounts that do not reconcile to VAT returns and bank statements undermine any valuation built on them.
• Consider a second opinion where the figure is genuinely contested. In a dispute or a negotiation, an independent review of the first report is often more effective than a rival valuation.

Two guides go deeper here: why Golden Visa valuations get rejected and how to challenge a valuation you disagree with. If the matter is heading for a court or tribunal, what a DIFC court expects from a valuation report sets out the higher bar.

Where Assetica sits, and how to start

Assetica is an independent business valuation firm in Dubai. It does not audit and does not broker deals, so it has no stake in the number. Reports are prepared to IVS and the RICS Red Book, with IFRS 13 for financial reporting, and a standard report is delivered in five to seven business days from complete documents, or two to three expedited.

That is a trade-off, not a claim of superiority. A recipient who insists on a report signed by the incumbent auditor needs a different author, and a sale process still needs a broker or corporate finance adviser alongside the valuation. Knowing which you need is most of the decision.

If you want a range before you speak to anyone, the business valuation calculator applies the published sector reference ranges to your own EBITDA, add-backs and net debt. Those ranges are indicative reference points, not quotes.

This article describes general practice and is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Acceptance requirements are set by each authority, bank and counterparty and change from time to time. Confirm your own position before relying on anything above.

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.

Related Guides

• The 10-Minute Back-of-Napkin Valuation Every UAE Owner Should Do Once a Year
• Documents Needed for a UAE Business Valuation The Complete Checklist
• Business Valuation for Estate, Inheritance and Divorce in the UAE
• The 5 Most Expensive Mistakes We See in UAE Business Valuations