DIFC registered firms up 6.2% in first half of year

The Dubai International Finance Center (DIFC) said yesterday the number of companies incorporated in the financial free zone rose 6.2 per cent in the first half, putting the centre on track to triple in size by 2024.

The number of companies operating in the free zone rose to 1,750, out of which 463 were regulated financial institutions. The DIFC’s workforce increased to more than 21,600 and an additional 144,000 square feet of commercial space was leased during the first half.

“DIFC’s strong performance in the first half of 2017 confirms the centre’s position as Measa’s leading financial centre,” said Essa Kazim, the governor of the DIFC. “As a financial centre, we remain focused on achieving our strategic aim to triple in size by 2024.”

In 2015, DIFC unveiled plans to boost the number of registered financial firms to 1,000 by 2024 from 362 in 2014, with a target workforce of 50,000, up from 17,860.

Assets under management in the DIFC are forecast to rise to US$250 billion by 2024, from $10.4bn in 2014, and the balance sheets of member firms to reach $400bn, from $65bn.

To achieve these targets, the DIFC has been expanding in space.

Occupancy was 98 per cent in 2016, which has encouraged its owner DIFC Investments to add more commercial space, including the Gate Avenue and The Exchange Building.

Its Dh1bn Gate Avenue, which will encompass 660,000 square feet of builtup area and 880 metres in total length, is on track to open next year, while the Dh180 million Exchange Building, is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of next year.

Dubai Holding, the investment conglomerate of the Dubai Government, has also appointed its Tecom Group subsidiary to develop the mixed-use Dh5bn Emirates Business Park project that will expand the DIFC.

The project is being developed as a collaboration between Dubai Holding and DIFC, where tenants will be able to access the financial centre directly by footbridge and firms within Emirates Business Park will benefit from the same legal and regulatory status.

Work is due to start on the project by the end of this year, with completion due within four years.

In May, DIFC said it had reached an agreement with Dubai’s economic department to allow companies in the free zone to obtain licences to operate onshore in the emirate.