Abu Dhabi Free Zones: ADGM, KEZAD, Masdar City and twofour54

Dubai’s free zones are famous partly because there are so many of them that comparing them is a
cottage industry. Abu Dhabi took a different route: fewer zones, each built around a specific sector,
each with its own regulator, and in one case its own legal system.

Choosing between the main Abu Dhabi free zones is therefore less a question of price
than of fit. Here is what each is actually for, and who regulates it — including one detail that almost
every published comparison still gets wrong.

ADGM: a jurisdiction, not a business park

Abu Dhabi Global Market is the outlier. It is an international financial centre that operates its own
civil and commercial law, and the mechanism by which it does so is worth understanding before you weigh
it against anything else.

The chain runs through the constitution. Article 121 of the UAE Constitution was amended in 2004 to
extend federal legislative jurisdiction to the establishment of financial free zones and the scope of
exempting them from federal legislation. Federal Law No. 8 of 2004 then allowed a financial free zone to
be established in any emirate by federal decree, and exempted such zones from all federal civil and
commercial laws — while leaving UAE criminal law fully applicable. Federal Decree No. 15 of 2013
established ADGM specifically, and Cabinet Resolution No. 4 of 2013 set its location and area, since
amended by Cabinet Resolution No. 41 of 2023.

What that produces is unusual. In ADGM’s own words: “the foundation of the civil and commercial law in
ADGM is provided by the Application of English Law Regulations 2015. Those Regulations make English
Common Law (including the rules and principles of equity) directly applicable in ADGM.” ADGM notes this
made it the first jurisdiction in the Middle East to adopt an approach similar to Singapore and Hong
Kong.

ADGM comprises four independent authorities: the Registration Authority, which handles incorporation
and licensing; the Financial Services Regulatory Authority; ADGM Courts; and ADGM Authority, which
combines strategic and support functions. The courts run a Court of Appeal and a Court of First Instance
with Commercial and Civil, Real Property, Employment and Small Claims divisions.

Since its inauguration in late October 2015 it has expanded considerably. On 24 April 2023 the
international financial district was extended to take in Al Reem Island alongside Al Maryah, giving ADGM
an area of 14.38 million square metres. Our explainer on
ADGM and its English-law
courts goes further into the legal framework, and our comparison of
DIFC and ADGM
weighs it against Dubai’s equivalent.

Choose it if: you are running a fund, a financial services business, a holding
structure or a family office, and the direct application of English common law is worth something to your
counterparties. It is not the obvious home for a trading company.

KEZAD: industry, logistics and a choice of jurisdiction

KEZAD Group — part of AD Ports Group, and sitting inside its Economic Cities and Free Zones cluster —
describes itself as the largest developer and operator of integrated economic and industrial zones in the
UAE. It is located next to Khalifa Port, which is the whole point: our profile of
AD Ports Group and
Khalifa Port covers the logistics machine it plugs into.

Its most useful feature is one most zones do not offer: KEZAD provides both free zone and
mainland facilities, and you pick according to where you sell.

That distinction is the single most consequential decision an industrial business makes in Abu Dhabi,
and it is a customs question rather than an ownership one. Named focus sectors include automotive,
food processing, life science, logistics, metals, polymers and speciality chemicals.

One naming note: the working domain is kezadgroup.com. The kezad.ae address resolves but refuses
connections, and a number of guides still link to it.

Choose it if: you manufacture, warehouse, distribute or re-export physical goods.

Masdar City Free Zone: clean tech, with its own registrar

Masdar City Free Zone describes itself as the most sustainable free zone and business community in the
UAE, and it has a genuinely distinct legal lineage. Its companies regulations were issued by the Abu
Dhabi Future Energy Company under Article 7 of Law No. 22 of 2007, came into force on 1 February 2009,
and companies incorporate by filing with the Registrar in Masdar City.

What it publishes as its own offer: 100% foreign ownership, 0% import tariffs, dual licensing, freedom
to repatriate capital and profits, a One-Stop Shop for business support, and corporate tax exemption
available for qualifying free zone persons earning qualifying income as specified in the UAE corporate
tax law — the standard qualifying-free-zone-person test rather than a blanket exemption. Our guide to the
free-zone
corporate tax rules sets out what qualifying actually requires.

Its tenants include Siemens Energy, the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, the
International Renewable Energy Agency and Masdar itself. The Catalyst, a joint venture between Masdar
City and BP, is described as the region’s only venture investor focused on clean tech. The district sits
five minutes from Zayed International Airport and holds one of the largest clusters of LEED Platinum
buildings in the world. Our guide to
what Masdar City actually
built covers the district itself.

Choose it if: you are in clean tech, renewables, sustainability or research, and
proximity to that cluster is worth more than proximity to a port.

twofour54: media, and the correction everyone missed

twofour54 is Abu Dhabi’s media free zone, named after the emirate’s geographical coordinates, and part
of the ADNEC Group.

Here is the correction. twofour54’s own current business-setup page states that it offers “100%
ownership in Abu Dhabi’s media free zone, regulated by the Creative Media Authority“,
and that its freelancer licence is “a Sole Proprietor (Freelancer) licence issued by the Creative Media
Authority.”

Almost every third-party guide still names the Media Zone Authority. If you are filing
paperwork or citing your regulator in a contract, use the name the zone itself uses.

A second correction while we are here: twofour54 is part of ADNEC Group, not part of Abu Dhabi Media.
The confusion is understandable — its group chief executive, Humaid Matar Al Dhaheri, separately serves
as Deputy Chair of Abu Dhabi Media — but they are different relationships. twofour54’s own chief
executive is Mark Whitehead.

The zone offers new company setup, branch expansion and freelancer licences, with no minimum capital
required, and runs its own end-to-end support service, tawasol, covering residency permits and licensing.
Its flagship development, Yas Creative Hub, it describes as the first purpose-built development for
media, entertainment and gaming in the region.

Choose it if: you are in media, production, gaming or entertainment — and
particularly if you are a freelancer, since the sole-proprietor route is built for that.

How to choose

Two things this guide deliberately does not do. It does not quote setup costs — none of the four
publishes a current fee table we could verify, and consultancy websites are the single largest source of
wrong numbers in this category. And it does not give company counts: Masdar City’s own page contradicts
itself, and KEZAD’s widely quoted figure of more than 1,750 companies is specifically the reach of its
Josoor community programme rather than a zone-wide total.

These are also not the only free zones in Abu Dhabi. They are the four with the clearest sectoral
identities. If a mainland licence would serve you better, our guide to
Abu Dhabi mainland
licensing through ADRA and TAMM covers that route, and our overviews of
free zone versus mainland
setup, Dubai’s free zones
and Sharjah’s put Abu
Dhabi in context. Startups should also look at
Hub71, which is a
different proposition again.

Primary sources: ADGM on
itself, its
four
authorities, its
English
common law framework and the
federal
legislation behind it;
KEZAD Group and
its jurisdiction
options;
Masdar
City Free Zone and its
companies
registration regulations; and twofour54’s
business
setup and about
pages. This article is general information, not legal advice.