Reem Finance

Reem Finance

Reem Finance was established in 2007 as a private joint-stock company in Abu Dhabi, licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE. Chairman Hamdan Al Dahmani, who also serves as Chief Investment Officer of Celestial Holding, presides over a board that includes senior executives from International Holding Company, First Abu Dhabi Bank, and Omorfia Group. The firm operates exclusively within the UAE from its Abu Dhabi headquarters and a Dubai office on Sheikh Zayed Road, concentrating on financing for private-sector enterprises whose options are underserved by large conventional banks. The firm originates credit across corporate deposits, asset-backed loans, factoring, letters of guarantee, mezzanine financing, project finance, real estate financing, term loans, and its Amala Financing product. In March 2024, RAKBANK arranged AED 125 million in financing to Reem Finance, expanding its lending capacity. The firm's recent partnerships illustrate a digital-services overlay: it signed an agreement with Visa, partnered with Network International for digital transformation, and inked an MoU with Aura and a separate agreement with Appro Onboarding Solutions to automate customer onboarding. On the markets side, Reem Finance signed two agreements with the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange to boost investor participation, signaling ambition beyond pure credit. Financially, Reem Finance reported AED 34.1 million in net profit for 2022 and followed with year-on-year improvement in 2023, before publishing audited financials for the year ending 31 December 2025 — suggesting an upward trajectory despite the regional non-bank lending environment. Its shareholder register skews toward UAE holding companies and prominent families: board members include IHC Group CFO Alwyn Crasta and Sara Al Bin Ali, Group Head of Corporate, Commercial, and International Banking at FAB. CEO Seraj Faidi, who joined in 2016, leads an executive team that added a dedicated Head of Risk in July 2024 and a new Head of Credit in February 2025 — signaling deliberate institutionalization of underwriting. The firm's structural distinction rests on its Central Bank license, which permits deposit-taking and lending but without the retail-deposit scale of the UAE's large banks. That creates a specialist niche: Reem Finance funds itself through corporate deposits and arranged bank facilities, then lends to mid-market corporates that need structured credit. The resulting model is a credit-oriented balance-sheet lender operating inside the regulatory perimeter, rather than a typical family office or an unregulated private-debt fund — a posture that affords it access to UAE Central Bank liquidity windows and ADX market infrastructure.