Capital, structure and access to the Gulf. For entrepreneurs, companies and family offices from Europe.
Investor readiness, investment structuring and financial modelling that hold up to investor scrutiny. Based in Dubai, rooted in Vienna.
Sabine Waltner is Managing Director of AURUM Strategic Advisory, an owner-managed boutique in Dubai that supports entrepreneurs, mid-sized companies, corporates and family offices from German-speaking Europe on their way into the Gulf.
After studying financial management in Vienna, she began her career at PwC in investment structuring and due diligence. She then served for several years as Chief Investment Officer of a Vienna-based single family office before building her own advisory practice in Dubai.
Today she advises companies, investors and family offices on investment structuring, financial modelling and capital readiness. She builds the numbers that sound decisions rest on, to a standard that withstands investor scrutiny. Together with her partner she covers the whole path: from structure and financing to transactions, licensing and banking in the UAE.
Every engagement starts with the same question: does the structure fit the activity, and do the numbers hold? Only then does it make sense to talk about capital, investors or market entry.
Capital does not flow because an idea sounds good, but because the numbers, the documents and the positioning behind it hold up.
Family offices come to the UAE for three things: orientation, set-up and access. Six modules, each with a clear scope and a defined deliverable.
Mainland, free zone, offshore or holding: a structural decision that is rarely reversible without effort. I organise it around the actual business activity, not around whatever is being promoted.
A regular sounding board at CFO level for founders and leadership teams, and hands-on support when a transaction is on the table.
Trust is built before the deal, not after. In the Gulf, the decisive factor is rarely the highest price. It is who is trusted as a partner.
Real presence on the ground instead of structure on paper. Numbers that survive a second look. No forecast is carried forward that would not survive due diligence.
Quiet conduct instead of volume. Investor names are never shared before the agreements are in place. Confidentiality is not a clause, it is how we work.
Written by two practitioners who have worked for years at the point where international capital meets the Gulf.
The book looks behind the facade of the Gulf: how decisions are really made, what investors here actually look at, which structures hold and which only look good on paper. It is written for entrepreneurs, family offices and investors from German-speaking Europe who want to understand the region before they commit to it.
About the bookWhite papers from AURUM Strategic Advisory. Compact, practical, free to download.
Orientation, set-up and access: six modules from the first question to the first investment.
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The ten questions every investor asks, and how to be prepared for them.
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How to recognise a serious partner before you decide.
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