Due Diligence in Dubai and UAE

Our Due Diligence helps you to :

• Confirm that the business is what it appears to be
• Confirm all material facts related to the business
• Assess the risks and opportunities of a proposed transaction
• Reduce the risk of unpleasant surprises post-transaction
• Create a trust between two unrelated parties
• Identify potential deal killers in the target and avoid a bad business transaction
• Verify that the transaction complies with investment or acquisition criteria

HLB HAMT’s Approach to Due Diligence Program Development

• Program Development
  Define business purpose, acquisition goals, and critical objectives.
• Sector Understanding
  Analyze the industry and identify key focus areas for due diligence.
• Team Assignment
  Assemble a multidisciplinary team with sector and functional expertise at HLB HAMT.
• Timetable Setting
  Create a detailed schedule with deadlines for each step of the due diligence process.
• Report Issuance
  Prepare and deliver a comprehensive Due Diligence report summarizing findings and recommendations.
• Due Diligence Execution
  Conduct due diligence, communicate issues promptly, and ensure timely completion.
• Protocol Establishment
  Define information collection and retention protocols for transparency and compliance.

Due Diligence Process

Our Methodology

Using proprietary Intelligence for successful transactions, our teams can substantially enhance your probability of success by understanding your objectives, developing mutually agreed procedures, providing professional strategic, commercial and financial due diligence with excellent regional intelligence, providing regular reporting which links commercial and financial issues to your strategic objectives, facilitating decision making and transaction negotiations and assisting with post-transaction implementation procedures.

How can we help you

• Financial & Accounting Due Diligences
• Strategic Due Diligence
• IT / System Due Diligence
• Operational Due Diligence including
• Commercial / Market Feasibility Studies
• Human Resources – review processes, outsource providers, etc.
• Internal Controls Diligence
• Risk Management – assess target profile and risk focus areas,
• Regulatory / Compliance diligence

Frequently Asked Questions – Due Diligence

1. Why is a Due Diligence important in UAE?

   A due diligence is defined as an investigation or audit of a potential investment, product, or a key business decision in order to confirm all facts pertaining to it. A good due diligence goes beyond the numbers and aims to analyze what lies behind these. Since a due diligence helps to gain a deeper understanding of the target organization or investment, it is prudent for any individual or organization to carry out such an exercise in order to protect themselves against any unforeseen risks.

2. What are the types of Due Diligence that you would adopt in UAE?

   • Financial DD: Focuses on verifying the financial information provided and to assess the underlying performance of the business in terms of earnings, assets, liabilities, cash flow, debt, management etc.
   • Commercial DD: Aims at understanding the market through review of market conditions, sector-specific legislation, competitor analysis, product or service assessment or any other commercial aspects the user wishes to investigate.
   • Tax DD: Assessment of tax impact arising from ‘change in control’, assessment of historical tax exposures, identifying tax-saving opportunities, assessment of current tax position, assessment of various modes of tax neutral deal structuring.
   • Human Resources DD: Focuses on the impact of human capital by identifying the qualifications, technical ability and working initiative of the target firm’s senior management personnel and key staff.
   • Operational DD: Consideration of non-financial (operational) matters of an investment decision, which may include assessment of systems and processes, review of the incumbent management team, staffing levels and other HR activities, or insurance arrangements and risk assessment.
   • Legal DD: Investigation of any legal risk associated with the rights and obligations of the investment decision. Issues may typically involve property ownership, intellectual property and employment disputes.
   • Administrative DD: Involves verifying admin-related items such as facilities, occupancy rate, number of workstations, etc. The idea is to verify the various facilities owned or occupied and determine whether all operational costs are captured in the financials.
   • Asset DD: Includes a detailed schedule of fixed assets and their locations, all lease agreements for equipment, a schedule of sales and purchases of major capital equipment during the recent past, real estate deeds, mortgages, title policies, and use permits.
   • Intellectual Property DD: Schedule of patents and patent applications, schedule of copyrights, trademarks and brand names, pending patents clearance documents, any pending claims case by or against the company in regard to violation of intellectual property.
   • Customer DD: Examination and analysis of the top customers, service agreements and corresponding insurance coverage, current credit policies, customer satisfaction score, and related reports for past periods.

3. What are the steps involved in a Due Diligence process in UAE?

   A due diligence process would typically need to follow the below steps:

   • Defining scope and information requirements of the Due Diligence
   • Obtaining and analyzing preliminary information from the target company – this would include historical financials, recent management financials, business plans, information on banking and liabilities, information on operations, assets, employees etc.
   • Understanding key transaction drivers
   • Conducting interviews, review policies and procedures
   • Onsite assessment and detailed walkthroughs where necessary
   • Discussions with key management personnel to validate findings
   • Analyzing the implications of key findings
   • Issuing of a Due Diligence report

Speak to our Director

Raghunath T



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