Dubai Chambers discusses the future of investment and charitable work in global family businesses

Dubai, 3 February / WAM / The World Government Summit 2026 and the Dubai Chambers organized a roundtable discussion to discuss mechanisms for enhancing the future readiness of family companies’ investment portfolios, and to discuss the prospects for the societal impact of family companies, enhancing their active role in charitable work, and expanding the scope of their social contributions. Government officials and more than 40 senior officials from major local and international family companies participated in it.

The roundtable was chaired by His Excellency Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dubai Chambers, who highlighted during the meeting the pivotal role played by family businesses as a fundamental driver of social and economic development and a major player in the global investment landscape.

During his opening speech, His Excellency Engineer Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri stressed that the world is witnessing radical transformations in the roles of family businesses, as they are no longer limited to managing wealth or preserving economic heritage, but rather have become a major contributor to shaping the future of investment, supporting sustainable development, and creating cross-border partnerships.

He pointed out that the expanding role of family businesses on the social and economic levels requires re-examining how to support these companies, enhance their capabilities to adapt to changes, and accelerate their growth within highly complex and competitive global economic systems.

His Excellency said: As we enter an era in which modern technology integrates with the economy and investment, the need is increasing to adopt more flexible models and redesign governance models within family business offices, not only to ensure the sustainability of performance, but also to raise the efficiency of decision-making and enhance their readiness to keep pace with new market opportunities, pointing to the importance of supporting the role of the new generation within families to actively participate in charting these paths, due to their familiarity with modern technologies and awareness of future priorities.

Al Mansouri explained that the concept of investment is no longer measured solely by financial returns, but rather includes the societal and environmental dimension, which we see in the growth of charitable work based on impact, which today constitutes a natural extension of the role of family businesses in supporting communities, stressing the need for community contribution to form an essential element within the institutional strategy of family businesses.

His Excellency pointed to the vital role played by the Dubai Family Business Centre, which operates under the umbrella of Dubai Chambers, in supporting the continuity of family businesses and enhancing their competitiveness across generations, by providing an integrated framework for governance, succession planning, and capacity building.

He stressed that the initiatives launched by the Center contribute to consolidating a legislative and institutional environment, support the ability of family businesses to keep pace with economic transformations, and motivate them to adopt the best global practices in management and investment, thus consolidating Dubai’s position as a leading global center for family businesses.

The roundtable included two topics of discussion, the first under the title “Charitable Work and Effective Community Contribution,” which discussed ways to redefine responsibility and social impact and build a sustainable legacy for family businesses.

In light of the developments in the global charitable work scene in parallel with the increasing wealth of individuals and families around the world, several transformations are emerging, most notably the transfer of wealth between generations, and the shift in focus in charitable work towards sustainable impact, which is now known today as “impact-based philanthropy,” according to a report by the global consulting company “PwC.”

The session highlighted a number of issues, most notably the need for sufficient knowledge of the legal and financial tools for charitable work and its tax implications for family offices, and the importance of developing mechanisms to measure the scope and impact of social and environmental initiatives and the extent of their sustainability, in addition to establishing the principles, policies and governance procedures necessary to ensure consistency in the charitable approach of family businesses and to enhance cooperation with various relevant institutions from the public and private sectors.

The second axis, entitled “Designing global investment portfolios that keep pace with the requirements of the future,” focused on the investment trends of family companies.

During the session, the role of family businesses in Dubai was reviewed as a pivotal element in achieving the goals of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, as the contribution of the family business sector to the gross domestic product of the Emirate of Dubai during the year 2024 amounted to approximately 491.8 billion dirhams ($134 billion), according to data from PwC.

Participants in the session stressed that the expansion of family businesses and the diversification of their activities led to a reshaping of the way they manage and employ capital, as family offices, which manage the wealth of these successful and diversified companies, tend to invest in new and multiple sectors and assets, similar to their counterparts around the world. This trend reflects a shift in the traditional role of these offices from focusing on preserving wealth towards adopting a more dynamic and flexible approach in light of a world characterized by complexity and continuous change.

Over the past decade, family offices have increasingly relied on what are known as “club deals,” which are executed in partnership with other investors to reduce risk and achieve efficiency. According to the PwC report, these deals represented about 69% of the total deals executed by family offices in the first half of 2025.

This trend reflects a desire to avoid the high risks associated with individual investment in light of market fluctuations, but it also indicates the ambition of leading family offices to expand into larger deals at the local and international levels that can only be implemented through strategic partnerships.

Family businesses in the Middle East are playing an increasing role in this global shift towards high-value partnership deals, and this is evident in their growing participation in venture capital deals with the participation of several parties inside and outside the region, as family offices in the UAE implemented risk capital investment deals worth approximately 11 billion dirhams ($3 billion) during the first six months of the year 2025, ranking third globally after the United States and the United Kingdom, according to the PwC classification of family offices in risk capital transactions.

Session participants stressed the importance of building new governance models to manage the global exposure of family business portfolios and redefining the ability to bear investment risks, in addition to developing mechanisms to modernize appropriate asset classes that meet the investment objectives and requirements of family businesses.

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