Context Where it started
Decima International is a programme and project management consultancy headquartered in Allen, Texas, delivering capital programmes across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Its work is tender-driven and runs through large public and private clients.
Gulf projects were already on its map, with Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha among its project locations. To bid and contract directly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia it needed local entities. The question was not whether to set up, but how to set up so that two countries, one parent and a tender-driven business fit together without paying for it twice.
Challenge What had to change
The UAE and KSA each offer several ways in for a foreign company, and the choice sets the tax position, the capital requirement, the reporting load and the speed to a licence. For a consultancy under a US parent, the wrong combination means duplicated costs, a tax treatment that does not match how the business bills, and entities that cannot sign the contracts they were created for.
The hardest part was tax. The structure had to be the right one for how Decima invoices across borders, and the one that kept the ongoing cost of two Gulf entities as low as possible. That ran through everything else: entity type, licence type, where revenue would sit, and how the parent relates to each subsidiary.
Approach What was done
Three Sessions, One Decision FrameworkI ran three structuring sessions with their leadership covering both countries at once, not one after the other. We laid out the options side by side: branch of the US parent versus a new subsidiary, mainland versus free zone in the UAE, licence type in KSA, and what each meant for tax, capital, timeline and tender eligibility.
Design the Structure Around the TendersTender eligibility was the point of the exercise, so it drove the design. We chose a subsidiary of the US parent in each country for three reasons: tax treatment that fits how Decima invoices across borders, a local entity that meets the tender registration requirements on both sides, and liability that stays inside each Gulf company instead of running back to the parent.
Formation in Both CountriesAbsher Business ran the two formations in parallel: UAE and Saudi licences, registrations, bank and visa processes. From the first session in April 2025 to operating entities in July 2025: three months for two countries.
Stay On as the Back OfficeAbsher now provides government relations and PRO services for both entities, so the Gulf offices run without Decima building a local administration function. Their Riyadh and Dubai addresses are now listed as regional offices on their own website.
I led the structuring sessions and the recommendation. Absher Business operations handled the formations and provide the ongoing GRO services. Structure details and operating figures are confidential, so this case describes the approach, not the numbers.
Why I built it this way The reasoning
I covered both countries in the same sessions, not one after the other. The structure had to fit how Decima invoices across borders and keep the ongoing cost of two Gulf entities as low as possible.
I let tender eligibility drive the design, because tenders were the point of the exercise.
I chose a subsidiary of the US parent in each country. It fits how Decima invoices across borders, meets the tender registration requirements on both sides and keeps liability inside each Gulf company.
Where it stands now As of October 2026, Absher runs government relations and PRO services for both entities, and Decima lists its Dubai and Riyadh addresses as regional offices.
