The UAE is a transit corridor for family businesses to the...

Speakers who represent the largest family offices and wealth owners worth $ 4.5 trillion confirmed that the UAE represents a transit point for family businesses across the region to the world, explaining that generational inheritance is the most prominent challenges for family companies regionally and that governance is the way for family businesses to regulate the relationship between successive generations.

This came during Sir Anthony Ritossa’s 12th summit for global family office investments in Dubai yesterday, with the participation of the most important family offices and individual investors in the Middle East and the world, with the attendance of 600 people representing the largest family offices, wealthy individuals, and private investment companies.

Mohammed Al-Ali, CEO and advisor to the Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum Foundation for International Investments in the UAE, said that the UAE is a transit point for family businesses across the region to the countries of the world and that Dubai has become the first economic city in the region in terms of attracting investors and companies of various forms and nationalities.

He added that Corona changed investment plans and redrawn strategies in all countries, including the Emirates, as it strengthened the state’s tendencies towards investment in the sectors of food and health security.

A corporate platform

Yaqoub Al Serkal, Executive Director of IAS Investments, stressed the importance of the UAE market for various family companies around the world, as it represents a destination and a starting point for companies to reach various markets, pointing out that the ease of establishing and doing business in the UAE was the most important attraction for these companies.

He explained that a prudent investment strategy and liquidity prioritization is the best way for family businesses to take advantage of opportunities and avoid risks at the present time.

For his part, the honorary president of Al-Zayani Group in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Khaled Al-Zayani, affirmed that governance represents the way for family companies to organize the relationship between successive generations, as family companies wishing to continue and avoid disappearing must put in place the system that allows the person and forces him to leave management.

Sir Anthony Ritossa, Chairman of the Ritossa Family Office, the main organizer of the summit, said: “This edition is the most prominent event in the history of the global family office investment summit, as it is held in light of an unprecedented global health crisis and an economic crisis caused by the outbreak of Corona.”