Where the price comes from when a family has written nothing down

Naming who will run a family business answers a management question. It does not answer what a departing shareholder receives, when the money arrives, or who pays it. Where a family company's own documents leave that question open, current law supplies an answer, and it runs through a committee.

Three documents carry ownership questions in a UAE family company, and they do different work.

• The memorandum of association. Article 1 of Federal Decree-Law No. 37 of 2022 defines it as the memorandum of association of the family company documented by the concerned authorities. Article 5(1) requires it to comply with that Decree-Law and with the applicable provisions of the Commercial Companies Law or free zone legislation. Under Article 14(1) of Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021 it is made in Arabic and authenticated by the Competent Authority, failing which it is null and void.
• The shareholders' agreement is a contract between the holders. Federal Decree-Law No. 37 of 2022 contains no provision for one, and Article 26(1) leaves the Commercial Companies Law and other applicable legislation governing any matter for which the Decree-Law has no special provision.
• The family charter. Article 6(1) lists what it may contain: rules for ownership, the objectives and values of the family, mechanisms for evaluating shares and methods of profit distribution, education and qualification of family members to work in the company and its subsidiaries, and consideration of family disputes. Under Article 6(4) it is approved or amended by a majority of the Family Council members, or of the partners from the family where there is no council. Under Article 6(5) the company may file a copy with the Register.

Article 6(3) ranks the first and the third: where the memorandum and the charter conflict, the memorandum applies, and any provision contradicting the memorandum or the Decree-Law is repealed from the charter.

Where a price is not recorded, the Decree-Law supplies a route to one.

• Article 8(3): where a non-family third party comes to own a partner's share otherwise than through the route in Article 8(2), the remaining partners have sixty days from the date of that ownership to request redemption, at the value agreed with the third party or the value determined by the committee where they disagree.
• Article 9: where a single partner comes to hold not less than 90 per cent of the family company's shares, that partner notifies the partners from outside the family of the wish to purchase their shares, and they may sell at a price agreed between them or at the price the committee determines. Where that partner comes to hold not less than 95 per cent of the voting shares, the same duty to notify runs instead to the remaining family partners, who may sell on the same terms. The Ministry's official English text prints both figures without a per cent symbol; the Arabic text, which governs, gives them as percentages.
• Article 9(2) states how the committee reaches that price. It evaluates the shares in accordance with the mechanism stipulated in the memorandum or the charter. Where neither contains such a stipulation, the shares are evaluated by one or more financial and technical experienced experts selected by the committee, at the purchaser's expense.
• Article 23(2): where family company capacity ends and part of the capital consists of class B shares, the company offers to purchase those shares at the price determined by the committee, unless the seller and the company agree another price.
• Article 20: a committee is established in each Emirate by decision of the Minister of Justice or the head of the local judicial authority, presided over by a judge and assisted by two experts specialised in the legal, financial and family company management fields.

Article 9(2) therefore turns on one fact: whether the memorandum or the charter holds a valuation mechanism.

Dubai local law follows a similar architecture for family property contracts. Article 14(a) of Dubai Law No. 9 of 2020 gives the other partners sixty days from becoming aware of an acquisition to request ownership of a share that has passed to a third party, at the price agreed with that third party or the price determined by the Tribunal where no agreement is reached. Article 15(a) applies the same structure where a partner declares bankruptcy or insolvency, at the price agreed with the trustee or determined by the Tribunal. Dubai Law No. 21 of 2024 defines the Tribunal as the body formed under Administrative Resolution No. 14 of 2023, and the Dubai Government announcement of 24 October 2023 states that the remit of the body it describes includes share pricing and redemption rights.

The Ministry publishes reference documents. Article 5(2) requires it to prepare a guiding memorandum of association and Article 6(6) one or more guiding charters. Its companies legislation index lists a family business charter, a memorandum of association template and a family business code of conduct alongside the Decree-Law and four decisions of 2023.

Sources, all retrieved 11 August 2026. Federal Decree-Law No. 37 of 2022, official English text: https://www.moet.gov.ae/documents/20121/0/family+company+english+version+examined+and+correcetd.pdf Federal Decree-Law No. 37 of 2022, official Arabic text, which governs and states the Article 9 thresholds as ninety and ninety-five per cent: https://www.moet.gov.ae/ar/companies-legislations Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021 on Commercial Companies: https://www.moet.gov.ae/documents/20121/376326/Commercial+Companies.pdf Ministry of Economy and Tourism legislation index: https://www.moet.gov.ae/en/companies-legislations Dubai Law No. 9 of 2020: https://dlp.dubai.gov.ae/Legislation%20Reference/2020/Law%20No.%20(9)%20of%202020%20Regulating%20Family%20Property%20in%20the%20Emirate%20of%20Dubai.pdf Dubai Law No. 21 of 2024: https://dlp.dubai.gov.ae/Legislation%20Reference/2024/Law%20No.%20(21)%20of%202024%20Amending%20Law%20No.%20(9)%20of%202020%20Regulating%20Family%20of%20Dubai.pdf Dubai Government announcement, 24 October 2023: https://www.protocol.dubai.ae/en/media-listing/news-events/maktoum-bin-mohammed-issues-resolution-for-formation-of-family-business-and-family-ownership-disputes-settlement-committee/

This content is written with law firms as an educational reference on how these mechanisms appear in current law. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, no provision described here has been verified or endorsed by the programme, and a family takes its own advice on its own circumstances.