AlphaBet Capital Advisors

Regime for marketing foreign funds in the UAE (1 March 2017) – Morgan Lewis

Regime for Marketing Foreign Funds in the UAE

Excellent piece by Morgan Lewis. What I like is that they do not just tell you what you can’t do. They conclude with a very helpful ‘can do’ statement: any marketing of interests in foreign-domiciled funds to investors in the UAE requires that the interests be registered with the SCA and distributed by a local promoter licensed in the UAE, unless:

• the Fund Interests are being marketed to:
  • federal or local governmental agencies or their wholly owned subsidiaries,
  • international commissions and organizations,
  • UAE companies whose objectives include carrying out investments, or
  • SCA-regulated asset managers.
• the marketing is being conducted in response to a reverse solicitation;
• the fund is listed; or
• the marketing is performed entirely offshore vis-à-vis the UAE.