Company Liquidation

Liquidation is the process by which an LLC company (or branch of a company), sole establishment, free zone company or establishment closes its operation and the assets and property of the company or establishment is distributed to creditors and shareholders (owners) of the Company.
Liquidation is also known or referred to as winding-up or dissolution, although dissolution theoretically refers to the final steps of the liquidation process. The process of liquidation becomes inevitable when a company doesn’t have liquid funds to carry on day-to-day transactions of the company, creditors are not being paid or the company commits some serious offence, and regulatory authority or agency in a country responsible for the relevant sector files a suit for the winding up the operations of the Company Liquidation may either be compulsory (sometimes referred to as a creditors’ liquidation) or voluntary (sometimes referred to as a shareholders’ liquidation, although the creditors control some voluntary liquidations. Following are procedures and documents details which are prepared and presented to Economic Departments.

Cancellation of Limited Liability Company License

First Stage:

Cancel all existing employees, if any
Resolution of Director Board for dissolution and appointment of a liquidator and it has to be attested from Notary Public.
Letter from the Liquidator along with their License Copy, Auditor registration certificate, Authorised signature certificate attested by Notary Public.
Payment of the fees at Department of Economic Development to issue company liquidation certificate.
Liquidation advertisement in two local Arabic newspapers for one day and wait for 45 days to check whether any client has financial claim against the company

Second Stage:

Present original newspaper Ad and final audit report of the company to the Department of Economic Development.
Confirmation of the Liquidator and Partners that there is no any objection/claim from the third party during the Ad period.
Cancel visa of partners, if any, and get clearance letter from Ministry of Labour and Immigration,DEWA,Etisalat.
Copy of Director Board resolution and copy of liquidation certificate..
Pay fees at Department of Economic Development.

Cancellation of Sole Establishment Companies

Cancel all existing employees, if any.

Type Labour Establishment Card Cancellation form from Tas’heel Center. No government fees there.

Get seal and authorized signature of the company on the application and submit at any of the Labour Office branch. Labour office will issue their NOC by putting a stamp on the application you submitted.

You should prepare the above mentioned cancellation form even if your company didn’t make a Labour Establishment Card.

Then type license cancellation form of Department of Economic Development, get signature of the owner and submit at DED.

Pay fees at Department of Economic Development for cancellation.

Economic Department will issue a file number and take it to Department of Protective Systems to get clearance from Police authority. If there are no violations in Police records, they will send clearance message soon to DED electronically.

Pay fees to DED to get Cancellation Certificate.

Take this certificate to Immigration Head office in Jaffliya along with a request letter in Arabic and original Immigration Establishment Card. If the card is lost, you will have to get Certificate of Loss from Police. To get this certificate, prepare a request letter in Arabic and submit it at your nearest police station. Certificate will be issued after two days.

Cancellation of Free Zone Companies

Different free zones have different procedures for liquidation, but most of them follow the same process.

Resolution from the Board for liquidating the Company and appointment of liquidator (registered and approved liquidators in UAE)
Immigration and labour departments clearance from free zone authority. All visas should be cancelled and cleared.
Liquidation letter by registered auditor for FZE & FZCO only to be submitted.
All fees and charges are to be settled with the free zone.

Clearance Certificate from free zone authority (For companies transferred from free zone) to be submitted.
Clearance Certificate from Business Unit (NOC).
Clearance Certificate from CLD Government section.
Original License.