The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is in flux with companies shutting down and new ones arriving in droves. Of the 973 companies that have set up in the DIFC since it opened in 2004, almost a fifth have dissolved, become inactive or been struck off by the registrar, according to an analysis of the DIFC Company Register. That leaves 780 active companies in the commercial facility. Meanwhile, 70 companies have arrived so far this year and 351 have joined within the past two years.
Marwan Lutfi, the deputy chief executive and head of business development at the DIFC Authority, said the DIFC was becoming a more focused financial centre. Many of the UAE companies that had a second office in the DIFC were under pressure to close one of their offices, while major banks were increasingly consolidating their international operations from around the region into the DIFC. About 65 per cent of companies in the DIFC used their offices to service operations across the region, Mr Lutfi said.
"At the centre, you see a lot of change taking place," he said. "All business is in a period of revising plans." Mergers between big western firms have also spurred some consolidation of offices. Dresdner Bank closed its offices at the DIFC after its merger with Commerzbank, which already had space in the centre. And the recruitment agency Whitehead Mann's offices were closed after its merger with Korn/Ferry last year.
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