Our services

Our first job is to help clients make the right decision. An African investor who wants to set up in Dubai rarely needs everything on offer: they need the structure suited to their activity, the visa matching their family situation, the property serving their objective, and a bank that will accept their file. A UAE fund looking at Africa needs to know which countries and sectors fit its investment thesis, what the realistic timeline is, who the possible partners are and which risks it will have to manage.

We answer these questions with scoping notes, market studies, country risk analyses and structure comparisons. These documents are written to be read by decision-makers: they get to the point, quantify the options and take a position. They draw on our knowledge of both shores, our network of lawyers, bankers and operators, and verified sources.

The heart of our value is our network. In Africa we know the ministries, investment promotion agencies, chambers of commerce, industrial groups, producers, exporters and the law and audit firms that matter. In Dubai and the Gulf we work with funds, family offices, industrial and logistics groups, traders, refineries, developers, banks and free zones. We never introduce a partner we have not met and vetted.

Vetting covers the identity and reputation of directors, the reality of the business, its financial situation, any sanctions or proceedings, and consistency between what the partner claims and what we observe. This step rules out a significant share of counterparties and protects our clients from the most costly mistakes.

Once the partner is found, the deal has to hold. We design the legal and financial structure with lawyers and tax advisers in both countries: holding, operating company, shareholders' agreement, offtake contract, land lease, power purchase agreement, establishment agreement, trading licence. We follow the approvals, licences, permits and visas, and manage relations with administrations, in Dubai and in Africa.

We also organise business missions: African delegations to Dubai to meet investors and partners, UAE delegations to Africa to visit sites and meet authorities. Every mission is prepared with a programme, qualified meetings and contact follow-up. Government clients also entrust us with preparing investment files and seeking financing for their structuring projects.

For an African investor in Dubai: choice and formation of the right structure, bank account opening, residence visas, selection and acquisition of property, Golden Visa application, DMCC trading licence for gold or commodities, introductions to refineries, buyers and logistics providers, and annual follow-up of renewals and compliance.

For a UAE investor in Africa: analysis of the investment thesis and country selection, market study and risk analysis, identification and vetting of local partners, organisation of field missions, legal and tax structuring with lawyers in both countries, negotiation of offtake contracts, land leases and establishment agreements, approvals and licences, and operational follow-up after signing.

For an African government or institution: preparation of investment files to Gulf fund standards, organisation of delegations to Dubai with qualified meetings, sourcing of technical and financial partners for infrastructure, energy, agriculture or industrial zone projects, and support through to memoranda of understanding and contracts. For an exporter: structuring of flows to the Gulf, compliance, logistics and buyer relations.

We do not sell property, we do not manage funds and we are neither lawyers, bankers nor auditors. We coordinate these professionals on behalf of our clients and remain on their side of the table. We never guarantee a return, an administrative decision or a timeline that does not depend on us, and we do not accept projects whose source of funds or purpose cannot be documented. This discipline is what allows us to work with banks, funds and institutions that demand the same rigour, and it is what protects our clients over time.

Nor do we take on more than we can follow personally. Each engagement has a single point of contact in our team who knows the file end to end, attends the key meetings, reads every contract and answers the client directly. When a project requires expertise we do not have, we say so and bring in a specialist under our coordination, rather than improvising. Our clients pay for judgement, network and execution, not for volume.

A single point of contact who knows your file end to end. A written proposal before any work starts, with scope, deliverables, timeline and fees. A report after every important step, meeting, filing, response from an administration, signature. Independent verification of every counterparty before any introduction. And candour: if a project becomes unfeasible along the way, we tell you and stop, rather than billing months of work that leads nowhere. These commitments are written into every mandate we sign, and they are the reason clients come back to us for their second and third projects.