The location, the business-friendly environment and the low cost real-estate makes Sharjah one of the more attractive places to setup business in the UAE. You have several kinds of business setup in Sharjah, actually, there are seven major types of business that can be setup in Sharjah. The purview of this article is to enumerate the seven businesses types that can be and the legal definition business types so anyone looking to establish their business in Sharjah can use this article as a reference for business setup in Sharjah.

business setup in sharjah

 Limited Liability Company

A limited liability company is one where the liability is shared between partners. The maximum amount of partners permitted is 50 while the minimum is about 2. Each person is only liable to the extent of his shares in the firm or capital. However, it is mandatory to have an U.A.E. partner who also needs to keep a minimum share of not less than 51% of the capital.

Partnership Company

A partnership company is one where two or more people are liable jointly to all the shares of the company’s liabilities. All the partners here should be U.A.E. Nationals.

Local Service Agent License or Business Partnership License

These are individual establishments that are owned only 1 person and they are created for the purpose of practising an economic activity. The financial liability of that establishment only extends to the owner as he is the only person who bears all the responsibility.

If the owner is someone who is not an Emirati or a G.C.C. national, then the license should be regulated through a local service agent who is a UAE national, legal entity, and a natural person.

Branch of Foreign Company

For the purpose of a foreign company establishing a branch here in Sharjah, proper documents must be submitted so that the preliminary license approval can be made.

Local Company Branch

This is for companies that are established in any other emirate but want to establish a branch in Sharjah. This entails the company filing the proper documents and an application for preliminary license approval.

GCC Company Branch

An application must be submitted in order to get license approval for the setup of a branch. This entails all the companies from an established country in any of the GCC.

Private and Public Shareholding Companies

A pubic shareholding company is one where the share capital has been equally divided into tradable shares where each shareholder is only liable to their share in the capital. Anyone who signs the memorandum and the articles of association are considered founding members of the company. Public shareholding companies won’t be licensed unless there are 10 founders and the share capital is not less than 10 million dirhams.

For the private shareholding companies, the same rules apply, although few of the rules will be slightly different. Namely, the number of founders cannot be less than 3, the share capital should be less than 2 million, and the shares cannot be offered for public subscription.