Business Feasibility Studies

A feasibility study answers the question: should this venture proceed at all, and in what form? A business plan assumes the answer is yes and describes how the venture will be executed, financed, and grown. A feasibility study is evidence-first and deliberately open to a 'no' or 'not yet' conclusion; a business plan is typically written once that decision has already been made, often for an investor or bank audience.

No — it is not a regulatory requirement. Free zones and the DED do not ask to see a feasibility study as part of the licensing application. It is a commercial discipline you choose to apply before committing capital, not a statutory precondition to incorporation.

A full-scope study covering market, financial, and regulatory feasibility typically takes 3–6 weeks depending on how many activity-specific approvals need mapping and how quickly research data can be gathered. Narrower scopes (market-and-financial only, or licensing-and-regulatory only) can be completed faster, generally within 2–3 weeks.

The fee depends entirely on scope — a full multi-pillar study for a regulated, capital-intensive activity costs more than a market-and-financial review for a straightforward professional services business. We agree the scope and fee in writing before any work begins, based on the scoping consultation.

Yes, this is one of the core outputs. The right answer depends on whether your business needs to trade directly with UAE mainland customers without a local distributor, whether your activity appears on a specific free zone's permitted activity list, ownership and repatriation considerations, and the total cost of each route over a multi-year horizon — not just the Year 1 setup fee. We compare the realistic options against your actual business model rather than applying a generic rule of thumb.

Yes. We assess whether your intended structure could qualify as a Qualifying Free Zone Person eligible for the 0% Corporate Tax rate on qualifying income under Federal Tax Authority conditions, or whether your income will fall under the standard 9% rate applicable above the AED 375,000 taxable-income threshold. We also flag whether VAT registration will be mandatory once you cross the Federal Tax Authority's registration threshold, or advisable earlier, and the cash-flow timing implications of 5% VAT on your specific business model.

Yes, though this is typically scoped as a comparative jurisdiction study rather than a single-market feasibility study. PNPC's presence in both India and the UAE means we can genuinely compare the two markets on cost, tax, market access, and regulatory ease, rather than being a UAE-only advisor guessing at the alternative.

We combine published UAE statistical sources (such as the Dubai Statistics Centre and Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre data, where relevant to the sector), industry and sector reports, and our own practitioner experience from advising clients actually operating in comparable segments. Where reliable published data is thin for a niche activity, we are explicit about that gap rather than presenting a false precision.

You receive a clearly reasoned report explaining why, including the specific assumptions that would need to change for the conclusion to shift, and — where relevant — an alternative structure, scale, emirate, or phased approach that could make the venture viable. A negative conclusion is a successful outcome of the engagement, not a failed one: it has saved you from committing capital to a venture the evidence does not support.

Existing UAE businesses commonly commission feasibility studies before launching a new product line, entering a second emirate, adding a new free zone entity, or considering a franchise or licensing arrangement. The methodology is the same — evidence before capital — whether the entity already exists or not.

We build realistic staffing cost assumptions into the financial model — salary benchmarks for key roles, visa and Emirates ID processing costs, and the cash-flow implications of running payroll through the Wage Protection System once you have UAE-based employees. WPS requires salaries to be processed through a registered system within specified timeframes, which affects payroll cash-flow planning from the first hire.

Our Dubai-based team conducts the core research and analysis directly, supplemented by published data sources and, where the engagement calls for it, targeted primary research such as stakeholder interviews or site visits. We do not outsource the analytical work to a generic offshore research vendor and present it as our own.

Yes, though we recommend distinguishing the internal decision-support feasibility study from an investor-facing document. Investors and banks often want a more narrative, forward-looking business plan; the feasibility study's evidence and financial model can feed directly into that document, but the tone and framing differ. We can produce both as a combined or sequenced engagement.

Economic Substance Regulations, administered by the UAE Ministry of Finance, historically required certain UAE entities carrying out specified 'Relevant Activities' (such as banking, insurance, lease-finance, headquarters, holding company, and certain other activities) to demonstrate adequate economic substance in the UAE and file annual ESR notifications and reports. Under Cabinet Decision No. 98 of 2024, the ESR notification and report filing obligation was discontinued for financial years starting on or after 1 January 2023, following the introduction of UAE Corporate Tax as the primary substance and anti-avoidance framework. For a new venture being feasibility-tested today, ESR is therefore no longer a live, ongoing filing obligation to plan around — our review instead focuses on making sure any pre-2023 ESR filings relevant to a group structure you are bringing into the UAE have already been closed out correctly.

We deliberately build three scenarios — base, downside, and upside — rather than a single optimistic projection. The base case uses assumptions we believe are realistic and defensible, not the most favourable plausible outcome. The downside case is designed to answer the question: if things go moderately wrong, does the venture survive, and for how long?

In most free zones, 100% foreign ownership has long been the default. On the UAE mainland, the Commercial Companies Law reforms have also opened 100% foreign ownership for most commercial and industrial activities, subject to activity-specific exceptions and the relevant DED's implementation in each emirate. We assess the ownership position specific to your activity and preferred emirate as part of the licensing route analysis within the feasibility study.

Free zone marketing packages typically quote the trade licence fee and sometimes a bundled visa allocation. Our capital requirement model adds office or flexi-desk rent, additional visa and Emirates ID processing costs, mandatory health insurance, initial working capital to cover the realistic period before break-even, and a contingency buffer — producing a figure that reflects what you will actually need to fund the venture through its first operating year.

The engagement formally concludes with the final report and working session, but the team that built your study remains available for follow-up questions and, if you proceed, transitions directly into the UAE Incorporation engagement using the same analysis — you are not re-briefing a new team on your business.

All feasibility engagements are covered by a confidentiality undertaking as standard practice. Business concept details, financial assumptions, and any proprietary information shared during the study are not disclosed to third parties or used for any purpose beyond the engagement.

Yes, though the scope shifts toward validating the seller's represented figures, assessing whether the existing licence and structure suit your intended future plans, and stress-testing whether the business's historical performance is a reliable guide to future performance under new ownership. This is closer to a commercial due diligence engagement with feasibility elements than a pure greenfield feasibility study.

Common surprises include: the real cost gap between advertised free zone fees and the fully loaded capital requirement; the practical restriction on direct mainland trading from certain free zone structures without a distributor; competitive density in specific micro-locations that published sector-level data does not show; and the cash-flow timing impact of VAT and WPS payroll obligations in the first operating year.

Yes. With operating offices in Dubai, Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, PNPC is positioned to advise on the UAE feasibility work while coordinating with an Indian parent company or investor's own tax and FEMA/ODI considerations on the India side, under one engagement rather than two disconnected advisors.

Standard delivery is a structured written report covering all agreed pillars, supported by the financial model as a working spreadsheet (not just static exhibits) so you can test your own assumptions after delivery. A summary presentation is included for the final working session and can be adapted for board or investor use on request.

Where location materially affects viability — retail, F&B, healthcare, or any footfall-dependent activity — yes, we benchmark specific location or free zone cluster options against rent, footfall, and competitive density. For location-agnostic activities (professional services, holding structures, e-commerce), this component is scoped down or omitted by agreement.

No feasibility study can predict actual trading results with precision — it provides a disciplined, evidence-based range of outcomes and identifies which assumptions the venture's success is most sensitive to. Its value lies in surfacing the right questions and the realistic range of outcomes, not in producing a single guaranteed number.

Yes, though these carry additional regulatory feasibility work — mapping approvals from bodies such as the Dubai Health Authority, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, the UAE Central Bank, or the relevant Emirate's specific regulator, alongside the standard market and financial pillars. These studies typically take longer given the additional approval-pathway research required.

The UAE dirham (AED) is pegged to the US dollar, which simplifies currency planning for many investors compared to floating-currency markets. We address repatriation of profits and capital in the context of the chosen licensing structure and, where relevant to a foreign parent, the interaction with the investor's home-jurisdiction tax and reporting obligations.

A Qualifying Free Zone Person is a free zone entity that meets specific conditions set by the Federal Tax Authority — including maintaining adequate substance in the UAE, earning qualifying income, and satisfying de minimis requirements on non-qualifying income — that allow it to apply the 0% Corporate Tax rate to qualifying income rather than the standard 9% rate. It matters for the feasibility study because the tax modelling changes materially depending on whether your structure can realistically meet these conditions.

Yes. If a material amount of time passes between the feasibility study's delivery and your decision to proceed, or if your intended scale or activity shifts, we recommend a scoped update review rather than proceeding on a stale study — this is typically a lighter-touch, lower-cost engagement than the original.

If the engagement is scoped as a comparative study, yes — we present the evidence honestly even if it points away from the UAE. If the engagement is scoped as a UAE-only feasibility study, our role is to assess viability within the UAE, but we will flag clearly if we believe the underlying idea may be structurally better suited elsewhere, even outside the agreed scope.

Feasibility studies are led by senior consultants from our Dubai office, with partner-level review at the scoping stage and again before the final report is delivered. For complex or high-capital engagements, a partner is directly involved throughout.

Committing to a lease, a trade licence application, or a franchise agreement before the feasibility work is done — turning the feasibility study, if commissioned at all, into a retrospective justification exercise rather than a genuine decision-support tool. Once capital or contractual commitments are made, the study's honest conclusions have far less room to change the outcome.

Yes, where relevant to the sector — UAE retail, hospitality, and certain B2B sectors have meaningful seasonal patterns around the summer period, Ramadan, and key trade or tourism seasons. We build seasonality into the financial model's cash-flow timing rather than presenting a flat monthly projection.

For franchise entries, we additionally stress-test whether the franchisor's royalty structure, minimum purchase commitments, and brand standards are supportable by realistic UAE unit economics — rather than assuming the franchisor's own projections (which are rarely UAE-specific and often optimistic) will hold locally.