The Dubai SME 100 ranking will act as a platform and catalyst to identify promising SMEs – to groom them to become bigger, better and sustainable enterprises; eventually graduating them to large globally-oriented companies. At its core, the ranking is aimed at:
- Celebrating Dubai’s top performing SMEs
- Creating greater awareness of the importance of SME development
- Creating a national motivational psyche in the nation’s social and business community
- Encouraging SME role models to share best practices.
- Marketing the capabilities of Dubai’s SME’s to regional and global investors
- Providing opportunities for SMEs to raise capital
- Creating a base of SMEs for a potential secondary listing of SMEs (IPO) that can attract equity capital for growth.
- Providing development path for SMEs to graduate
- Creating a culture of transparency and corporate governance.
Unlike other rankings which are based mainly or purely on financial indicators, the Dubai SME 100 ranking places a balanced emphasis on financial and non-financial dimensions that affect enterprise performance and development. The non-financial dimensions cover Innovation, International Orientation, Human Capital Development and Corporate Excellence. The ranking will also serve as a tool for helping SMEs identify capability gaps for improvement. This is the real value add of Dubai SME 100.
The ultimate outcome will be for Dubai to have more growth-oriented, innovative, capable and sustainable enterprises that can fly the UAE flag high.
The basic criterion is that the applicant must be an SME based on the official definition of Dubai’s SMEs. In addition, it must have audited financial statements for at least three years, and be an independent entity registered in Dubai (under DED or the Free Zones). SMEs will be ranked only after they have submitted all relevant information voluntarily. Hence the ranking does not necessarily represent Dubai’s top SMEs, but
SMEs that have undergone the Dubai SME evaluation process for ranking.
Key facts and figures of the Dubai SME 100 applicants and short-listed candidates are:
A total of 1092 SMEs registered for the initiative, of which 196 SMEs applied to move on to Stage 2 of the application and evaluation process. From these 196 serious applicants, the top 100 were selected and ranked based on complete submissions of financial statements, supplemented by either a management interview or site visit to ascertain facts and evaluate the merits of each case.
Of the 100 ranked SMEs, based on Dubai’s official SME definition, 15 % are classified as micro SMEs, 52% as small SMEs and 33% as medium-sized SMEs.
In terms of sectors, 62 % are from the Services, 13% are from the Manufacturing and 25% belong to the Trading Sector.
The combined turnover of the top 100 SMEs based on their latest financial records is estimated at AED 2.3 billion. Their estimate total assets are worth at AED 1.4 billion and the combined profit is AED 220 million.
Together, the top 100 SMEs in Dubai have 4,319 employees.
For more information on the Dubai SME 100 companies, please visit the website www.dubaisme100.ae or contact ‘Dubai SME 100’ on + 971 4 3613087.
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