End-to-end buy-side and sell-side M&A advisory, financial due diligence, and capital raising — delivered by a CFA-qualified, Big 4-trained principal advisor who personally works every mandate from kick-off to closing. Mid-market transactions from AED 10M across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the wider GCC.
At a large firm, your mid-market deal is staffed by analysts two years out of university, supervised by a manager juggling five other mandates, with a partner who appears at kick-off and at closing. The work that determines your outcome — the financial analysis, the valuation, the negotiation strategy — is done by people learning on your deal.
At Corvian Advisory, the CFA-qualified, Big 4-trained principal advisor who takes your first call is the same person who reads your financials, writes the analysis, builds the model, and sits across the table in negotiations. Every time. That is not a positioning statement — it is a description of how every mandate actually operates.
"We take a limited number of active mandates at any time precisely because the principal-led model only works if we can commit to it fully. If we cannot, we say so upfront."
For mid-market transactions in the AED 10M to AED 500M range, this approach consistently produces better outcomes than the institutional model — because the person making the judgment calls has the experience and credentials to make them well.
The CFA-qualified principal advisor personally leads every engagement — financial analysis, valuation, negotiation. No junior delegation, no account management layers between you and the decision-maker.
Every engagement is priced in a signed engagement letter before work begins. For standalone services, fees are fixed. For mandates, success fee structures are agreed and documented. No billing surprises, no scope creep charges.
Deep familiarity with UAE and GCC deal dynamics, free zone and mainland structures, UAE Corporate Tax implications, and the cultural and regulatory context of regional negotiations — built from direct transaction experience, not research reports.
Active coverage of the UAE-India, UAE-KSA, and GCC-Europe corridors. We understand the financial, regulatory, and commercial differences on both sides of cross-border deals — the advisors who know only one market consistently miss things the other side expects.
Every engagement begins with a signed NDA and formal engagement letter. Your identity, deal process, and financial information remain confidential until you choose to proceed at each stage. We run clean, discreet processes.
Nine specialist services covering the full transaction lifecycle — all delivered at principal level by a CFA-qualified, Big 4-trained advisor. From financial due diligence on a single acquisition target to end-to-end sell-side mandate management, every engagement is scoped precisely and executed to institutional standard.
Full buy-side mandate management for acquirers across the GCC, EMEA, and APAC corridors. We work with strategic acquirers, family offices, and private equity making mid-market acquisitions — running the full process from target identification through to deal close.
Structured on a retainer plus success fee basis. Interests directly aligned with yours throughout the process — we do not get paid well unless you get a good deal done.
Exclusive sell-side advisory for UAE and GCC business owners planning an exit, merger, or majority recapitalisation. We prepare your business, produce an institutional-grade CIM, identify and approach qualified buyers globally, and protect your position at every stage from first offer to final close.
Success-fee structured. We take a limited number of exclusive mandates at a time to maintain genuine principal-level attention on every deal. Your identity and process remain fully confidential until you choose to proceed.
Independent FDD including quality of earnings (QoE) analysis, EBITDA normalisation, working capital assessment, net debt identification, and contingent liability review. Covers UAE-specific items: Corporate Tax, VAT compliance, WPS payroll, end-of-service gratuity (EOSB), and free zone entity structure review.
Prepared by a CFA charterholder. Typically 3 to 6 weeks depending on business complexity. Fixed-scope engagement letter agreed before work begins. Format that satisfies PE investment committee requirements and supports SPA negotiation.
Market-side diligence assessing the commercial viability of an acquisition target — market sizing and growth trajectory, competitive positioning, customer concentration and retention, revenue sustainability, and key-person dependency. An independent view of whether the investment thesis holds before you commit capital.
Particularly important in GCC markets where formal research is limited and market dynamics differ significantly from Western benchmarks. We bring regional depth from direct transaction experience across the UAE and broader GCC.
End-to-end equity fundraising advisory — investment thesis development, financial model preparation, institutional-grade pitch decks, and investor introductions to GCC family offices, regional private equity, sovereign-linked funds, and international growth investors.
The quality of your materials and narrative determines the quality of investor conversations you get into. Whether you are raising a Series A, executing a pre-IPO round, or bringing in a strategic minority partner, we build both the story and the numbers behind it.
Institutional-quality pitch decks and Confidential Information Memoranda built specifically for GCC investors, sovereign funds, and family offices. Grounded in real transaction experience and built around your actual numbers — not template documents with placeholder content.
We write the narrative, build the financial summary, and structure the document to answer the questions GCC investors actually ask in this market. Includes a financial model and supporting data pack where required.
Advisory on optimal capital structure, debt instrument selection, and financing strategy for growth, acquisition, or refinancing mandates. We help UAE and GCC businesses access bank financing, Islamic finance structures (sukuk, murabaha, ijara), mezzanine capital, and bilateral lending facilities.
Capital structure decisions made with the wrong instrument or at the wrong moment constrain a business for years. We advise across the full financing spectrum and help you negotiate terms that preserve strategic flexibility.
Financial and operational integration advisory following M&A transaction close. We help acquirers realise deal value through structured integration of finance functions, reporting frameworks, treasury operations, and workflows across combined entities.
Most deals fail to deliver expected value not in negotiations but in the 12 months following close. Poorly integrated finance functions, misaligned reporting, and unresolved working capital disputes destroy synergies fast. We provide a structured integration roadmap and hands-on advisory throughout.
Specialist valuation of intangible assets for transactions, purchase price allocation (PPA), and regulatory compliance. We value patents, brand equity, trademarks, customer relationships, technology platforms, and goodwill using Relief-from-Royalty, MPEEM, and Cost Approach methods — IVS-compliant and prepared by a CFA charterholder.
In technology, pharma, consumer, and media transactions, intangibles frequently represent 60% or more of total deal value. Without independent intangible asset valuation, acquirers risk overpaying and struggle to satisfy IFRS 3 PPA requirements post-close. Our reports withstand auditor scrutiny and hold up in negotiation.
Full Valuation ServicesStart with a confidential conversation. We will give you a straightforward view of what you actually need — whether that is a full mandate, a standalone due diligence report, or just a second opinion on where you stand.
Most people understand the labels. Fewer understand what a well-run mandate looks like from the inside — and what separates a strong outcome from an average one in the GCC mid-market.
A buy-side mandate starts well before target identification. We spend the first weeks understanding your acquisition criteria precisely — sector preference, geography, size range, integration capacity, strategic rationale, and financial constraints. Vague criteria produce wasted time and bad deals. Clear criteria produce a focused, efficient process with higher close rates.
For off-market acquisition in the GCC mid-market, relationship access matters as much as analytical rigour. Many of the highest-quality targets in the AED 20M to 300M range are not formally for sale — they will transact if approached correctly, at the right price, by the right buyer. Our market relationships surface these opportunities.
Best suited for: Strategic acquirers, regional corporates, family offices, and private equity making mid-market acquisitions in the GCC and cross-border corridors.
Preparing a business for sale is more work than most owners expect. Buyers run forensic diligence — your numbers need to be clean, your narrative needs to be compelling, and your management team needs to be ready for detailed questioning. We get you prepared before the first buyer call, so nothing that comes up in due diligence is a surprise.
Running a competitive process — approaching multiple qualified buyers in parallel under NDAs — is the single most reliable way to maximise sale proceeds and ensure deal certainty. A bilateral negotiation with a single buyer gives up price discovery and negotiating leverage from the start. We design and manage the process to maintain both.
Best suited for: Founders, family business owners, and corporates planning a first exit or partial divestiture in the UAE and GCC. Also for shareholders in disputes seeking an independent advisor.
A clear, repeatable five-stage process that protects confidentiality, keeps the deal on track, and ensures nothing falls between the stages. Every engagement follows the same framework — the specific deliverables are agreed in the engagement letter before work begins.
A no-obligation conversation to understand your situation, objectives, timeline, and constraints. We ask the hard questions early so there are no surprises later. NDA signed before any sensitive information is shared.
A fixed-scope engagement letter with agreed deliverables, timeline, fees, and confidentiality terms — signed before any work begins. No scope creep, no billing surprises. What is in the letter is what gets delivered.
Deep-dive financial analysis, market research, and due diligence led entirely by the principal advisor. Every number verified. Every assumption tested. Every red flag flagged — not managed around.
Delivery of findings, independent recommendations, and active support through negotiation of heads of terms and key commercial deal points. The principal advisor is in the room for the conversations that matter.
Transaction close or deliverable sign-off, full documentation handover, and post-engagement support as needed. The engagement is not over until you have everything you need to move forward.
A well-run M&A process in the UAE typically takes 5 to 10 months from mandate engagement to closing. Below is how that timeline breaks down across the four main phases for a standard sell-side process.
Financial normalisation, pre-sale diligence review, CIM and teaser preparation, data room build, and management presentation. The quality of preparation determines the quality of buyer interest.
Structured outreach to qualified buyers under NDAs, distribution of teaser and CIM, management presentations, and receipt of indicative offers. Running competitive tension between parties.
Preferred buyer selected. Full financial, legal, and commercial due diligence. Q&A management, data room oversight, and active negotiation of key commercial terms and price adjustments.
SPA negotiation alongside legal counsel, regulatory approvals where required, conditions precedent management, and final closing. Post-completion adjustments and integration handover.
The following scenarios reflect the types of mandates Corvian Advisory advises on across the GCC and cross-border corridors. Details are illustrative to preserve client confidentiality.
A Dubai-based technology group identified an Indian SaaS platform as a strategic acquisition to expand its product suite into South Asian markets. The target was growing rapidly but had limited audited history, complex related-party revenues, and a partially in-development patent portfolio representing significant claimed value in the seller's IM.
A Dubai-based founder sought to exit a multi-specialty clinic group after 14 years of building it. The business was profitable but financial records were not institutionally clean — owner remuneration was commingled with operating costs, related-party lease arrangements complicated the earnings picture, and the management team below the founder was thin.
A regional private equity fund commissioned independent FDD on a GCC logistics and last-mile delivery business ahead of a growth equity investment. Strong top-line growth but operating cash flow consistently lagged reported EBITDA, raising questions about working capital and capital intensity that the fund's internal team could not fully explain from the information pack.
A UAE-based B2B payments platform was preparing a Series B raise to fund GCC expansion. The founding team had a strong product and early traction but lacked the institutional financial materials — a rigorous three-statement model, a compelling investor narrative, and credible market sizing — that regional institutional investors require before engaging seriously.
A GCC investment vehicle was considering a majority acquisition of a Saudi K-12 edtech platform that had grown rapidly during 2022–24. The platform claimed a significant share of a large and growing market, but the market sizing in the IM was based on assumptions the acquirer's team could not independently verify.
A UAE-based FMCG distribution group sought to acquire a Saudi distribution business to build a regional platform. The target operated across three Saudi regions with a mixed licence and entity structure — mainland, free zone, and a GOSI-intensive workforce requiring specific regulatory diligence beyond standard UAE FDD scope.
At a large advisory firm, your mid-market deal is staffed by analysts two years out of university, supervised by a manager across five other mandates, with a partner who appears at kick-off and at closing. The work in between — the financial analysis, the valuation judgment calls, the negotiation strategy — is done by people learning on your deal.
At Corvian Advisory, the principal advisor who takes the call is the same person who reads your financials, writes the analysis, and sits across the table in negotiations. CFA-qualified and Big 4-trained, with direct transaction experience across the GCC and cross-border corridors. Without the overhead that prices large firms out of the mid-market.
"Senior-led on every mandate" is not a positioning statement. It describes how every engagement at Corvian Advisory actually operates — because we will not take a mandate we cannot commit to properly.
We take a limited number of active mandates at any time to maintain this standard. If we cannot commit to principal-level attention on your deal, we say so upfront rather than take the engagement and staff it with juniors.
The CFA-qualified principal advisor leads every engagement from first call to final deliverable. No junior delegation. No account management layers between you and the work.
Every engagement is priced in a signed engagement letter before work begins. Fees are agreed and fixed. There are no billing surprises or scope creep charges — ever.
Deep familiarity with UAE and GCC deal dynamics, free zone considerations, UAE Corporate Tax, and the cultural context of regional negotiations — built from direct transaction experience, not research reports.
Active coverage of the UAE-India, UAE-KSA, and GCC-Europe corridors. We understand the financial, regulatory, and commercial differences on both sides — advisors who know only one market consistently miss things the other side expects.
All engagements are subject to a signed NDA and engagement letter before any sensitive information is shared. Your identity, deal process, and financial information remain confidential throughout.
The credentials held by the principal advisor are directly relevant to the quality of advisory you receive. The CFA charter, CA qualification, and Big 4 transaction experience are the three most directly applicable credentials in deal advisory and due diligence — and Corvian Advisory's principal holds all three.
The CFA charter denotes rigorous training in financial analysis, valuation, and portfolio management — directly applicable to M&A advisory, FDD, and business valuation. Three successive six-hour exams with a cumulative pass rate under 20%.
The CA qualification provides the accounting foundation required for financial due diligence, quality of earnings analysis, and balance sheet diligence — the workstreams where acquirers most commonly lose value without qualified oversight.
The FRM certification covers quantitative risk analysis and financial modelling at a level directly applicable to transaction structuring, earn-out mechanisms, and contingent consideration analysis in complex deal structures.
Trained in transaction advisory at KPMG — the institutional standard for financial due diligence and deal execution. The same analytical rigour applied to mid-market GCC mandates, without the large-firm overhead and delegation to junior staff.
All fees are confirmed in a signed engagement letter before any work begins. For standalone services, pricing is fixed-scope with no hourly surprises. For full mandates, fees are success-aligned. No hidden costs, no scope creep billing, no ambiguity.
Scope-dependent. Typically 3–6 weeks. Principal-led. Fixed fee agreed before engagement start. Covers QoE, working capital, net debt, UAE-specific items.
Get a ScopeInstitutional quality backed by real transaction experience. Includes financial summary narrative, market sizing, and financial model where required.
Get a QuoteStructured on a success fee basis, fully aligned with your outcome. Small monthly retainer on full mandates. Fee structure agreed before engagement start.
Discuss StructureScope and market complexity dependent. Often run in parallel with FDD to compress overall deal timeline without additional disruption to management.
Get a ScopePractical intelligence on M&A processes, valuation, and due diligence in the UAE and GCC — written from frontline transaction experience by a CFA-qualified, Big 4-trained advisor.
Questions we hear regularly from business owners, acquirers, and investors across the UAE and GCC. If yours isn't here, start a conversation — we will give you a straight answer.
Buy-side advisory means your advisor works exclusively for you as the acquirer — running target identification, financial due diligence, independent valuation, and negotiation on your behalf. You need it if you are making an acquisition of meaningful size and want credentialed, experienced representation throughout rather than relying on the seller's information alone. Most post-close disputes and value erosion happen on deals that lacked credible independent diligence on the buy side.
Sell-side advisory in the UAE starts with preparing your business for buyer scrutiny — cleaning up financials, normalising owner-related costs, and identifying diligence red flags before buyers find them. We then produce a CIM, run a structured buyer outreach, manage the data room and Q&A, and negotiate on your behalf. The full process typically takes 5 to 9 months. See our full guide: Preparing Your Business for Sale in the UAE.
Financial due diligence in the UAE covers quality of earnings analysis, EBITDA normalisation, working capital assessment, net debt identification, cash flow verification, related-party transaction review, and contingent liability assessment. For GCC businesses it also covers UAE Corporate Tax and VAT compliance status, WPS payroll verification, EOSB liability, and free zone versus mainland entity structure review. Our FDD reports are prepared by a CFA charterholder and typically take 3 to 6 weeks. Download our full GCC FDD Checklist.
For full sell-side and buy-side mandates, fees are primarily success-fee based — a percentage of deal value payable on close, sometimes with a small monthly retainer. For standalone services: financial due diligence (AED 20K–80K), commercial due diligence (AED 18K–55K), CIM preparation (AED 15K–40K), and business valuation (from AED 10K). All fees are fixed, agreed, and documented in a signed engagement letter before work begins. No hidden costs.
A well-run M&A process in the UAE typically takes 5 to 10 months from mandate engagement to closing. The stages break down as: preparation and CIM (6–10 weeks), buyer outreach and initial offers (6–10 weeks), due diligence and negotiations (8–14 weeks), and documentation, regulatory approvals, and closing (6–10 weeks). Deals involving Saudi Arabia or GAC merger control notification should budget an additional 4–8 weeks for regulatory approvals.
Yes. We specialise in cross-border deal advisory with particular depth in the UAE-India, UAE-KSA, and GCC-Europe corridors. Cross-border transactions represent over 54% of GCC M&A activity. We advise both UAE-based acquirers looking at targets in India and Southeast Asia, and international companies seeking entry into the UAE and GCC market. Read our guide: M&A in Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 Era.
We focus on mid-market transactions in the GCC, typically ranging from AED 10 million to AED 500 million in enterprise value. Clients include family-owned businesses planning an exit, regional corporates making acquisitions, private equity funds requiring independent due diligence, and international companies entering the GCC. For standalone advisory services — FDD, pitch decks, valuation reports — there is no minimum deal size requirement.
A Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM) is the primary document sent to prospective buyers in a structured sale process. It presents your business — the investment thesis, financial performance, market position, and growth opportunities — in a way that justifies your valuation expectations and generates serious buyer interest. A poor CIM attracts unqualified buyers and leaves value on the table. A well-prepared CIM shapes how buyers think about your business before they have even met you. See: What GCC Investors Look for in an Investment Memorandum.
Business brokers in Dubai typically earn a 5–10% commission on smaller deals, hold no formal financial credentials, and focus on matching buyers and sellers rather than advising on deal structure, valuation strategy, or negotiation. Corvian Advisory is a CFA-qualified, Big 4-trained boutique M&A advisory firm — our principal personally leads financial analysis, independent valuation, and negotiations. We operate on transparent, fixed-scope fees agreed before work begins, and take a limited number of mandates at any time to maintain principal-level commitment on every engagement.
Corvian Advisory has specific transaction experience across technology, healthcare, professional services, distribution, financial services, and consumer sectors in the UAE and GCC. We have deep familiarity with the India-GCC cross-border deal corridor across technology, pharma, logistics, and consumer goods. We do not advise on oil and gas upstream transactions or real estate development, but cover the full range of mid-market commercial and industrial sectors where financial and commercial due diligence is the primary advisory need.