Vendor due diligence (VDD) is important as it assures potential buyers. Those prospects are healthy financially and have acceptable levels of risk for money laundering.
Also know: Vendor Due Diligence and Vendor Assistance Services in UAE
Vendor Due Diligence in UAE: Objectives
Vendor due diligence in the UAE primarily facilitates a successful partnership or sale of companies and assets. It also helps sellers gain an in-depth understanding of the risks that their companies face.
The objectives of VDD, in more detail, include the following:
- Supporting figures, facts, and other data that offered in a company’s sales memorandum.
- Offering partners and buyers certainty about the target business’ financial position. Or financial health, as well as the nature of the business’s cash flow.
- Helping sellers make appropriate decisions on their pricing for their assets and businesses
- Identifying significant liabilities such as risk issues.
- Reducing the disruption of the sales process onto the daily operations of the business.
- Helping all the parties involved with the transaction to excuse the process of sale or partnership with efficiency and speed.
Best Practice for Vendor Due Diligence in UAE
Important aspects that businesses have to consider as they prepare for the process of vendor due diligence. Engaging a service provider in performing an audit includes the following:
- Collection of data: The process of vendor due diligence in UAE will require the proper collection and management of massive amounts of data and crucial information.
- Monitoring: Specific screening processes for vendor due diligence such as screening for negative news media can require ongoing tools for monitoring that are capable of capturing the range of all data points.
- Verification: The information that is collected and generated with the process of vendor due diligence has to be checked for accuracy by a reliable specialist.
Similar to customer due diligence in UAE, VDD has been seen as an ongoing procedure. Companies have checked at different points throughout the sales process to make sure that the risk profile hasn’t been changed.
Advantages of Performing Vendor Due Diligence in UAE
With the globalized nature of the business environment today. Businesses are exposed to various regulations that mandate them to mitigate risks. That is posed by third parties and external vendors. This makes vendor due diligence, most especially in the UAE, an integral part of compliance processes.
Vendor due diligence will undertaken by a business before it partners or purchases an external entity. The process is to assess and detect associated risks such as breaches of regulations and unfair business practices.
Other benefits of performing a thorough Vendor Due Diligence in UAE are as follows:
- The process helps businesses mitigate exposure not only to money laundering but also to bribery and other forms of corruption.
- It helps businesses uncover what the reputation of a vendor is and conduct a proper assessment as to whether its relationship would prove to be harmful or fruitful.
- Vendor due diligence allows businesses to understand vendors and offer insights with regards to what the aspects are that need to be focused on.
Risk assessment from a Vendor Due Diligence conducted in UAE has to take into consideration certain attributes that are critical such as:
- Vendor’s country of origin.
- The risk that is borne from the industry that the vendor operates or belongs to as certain business sectors e.g. gas exploration, oil, and defense, pose higher risks in comparison to others.
- The share structure of the business.
- The shareholders that are involved and the profiles of the shareholders.
- Purpose of the business transactions.
The sole way to comply with the code of ethics that applies globally (as well as the code of conduct) is to perform rigorous vendor due diligence and do it diligently. The VDD process should not only be implemented before entering into a contractual agreement with a certain vendor but also regularly or periodically to uncover any issues and monitor the new business relationship actively.
The first step of Vendor Due Diligence, as mentioned earlier, is data collection. The primary information or data that are to be collected include:
- Geographic location of the vendor
- Line of business
- Incorporation documents
- Ownership of the business
- Political connections
- Leadership team
Of course, the information that is collected has to be verified by reliable sources for a business to arrive at perfect risk scoring. With a high-risk seller or vendor, for instance, including its associated entities and subsidiaries, it calls for a more enhanced process of vendor due diligence. Negative news checks and sanctions assessments are necessary to establish any risks that are hidden.
Read more: How Businesses in UAE Conduct Due Diligence
We know you require more information regarding vendor due diligence in UAE. For further clarification and expert guidance, do not hesitate to contact the experts at Farahat & Co.
