Foreign ownership of onshore companies in UAE allowed from June 1

ABU DHABI: The UAE government confirmed that new rules allowing full foreign ownership of onshore companies will come into force from June 1.

The changes to the commercial company ownership laws, which were first announced in November last year, remove the requirement for onshore companies to have a major UAE shareholder.

They also abolished a provision mandating that a UAE national or UAE-owned company was required as anagent and that a company’s board needed to be made up of a majority of UAE nationals and chaired by an Emirati, says foreign media.

The changes are part of a series of measures introduced to make the UAE a more investment-friendly destination, which have also included the offer of 10-year visas for investors and citizenship for talented individuals.