CLA Emirates audits consolidated financial statements for UAE holding companies and their subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates. We act as group auditor, direct component work across jurisdictions, and issue a single opinion on the consolidated position.
Group audit in the UAE
A group audit is an audit of consolidated financial statements in which the group auditor takes responsibility for the opinion, including work performed on subsidiaries by component auditors.
Under ISA 600 (revised), the group auditor determines component performance materiality, decides which components require full audit or specified procedures, and directs and reviews the component auditors' work. The consolidation itself — elimination of intragroup balances, goodwill, non-controlling interests and translation of foreign operations — is audited at group level.
Requirement for consolidated financial statements in the UAE
A UAE parent must prepare consolidated financial statements UAE regulators accept where it controls one or more entities, unless it qualifies for an exemption under IFRS 10 Consolidated Financial Statements.
Control, not shareholding percentage, is the test. Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025 adds a tax dimension: a Tax Group must prepare special-purpose audited aggregated financial statements, which is a different exercise from an IFRS consolidation and is often overlooked.
Group audit versus single-entity audit
A single-entity audit covers one legal entity's accounts; a group reporting audit covers the parent, every material component and the consolidation adjustments that combine them.
The additional work sits in scoping and coordination. A subsidiary audit UAE component teams perform must be planned to the group's materiality and timetable, not the subsidiary's own, or the group opinion cannot be supported.
CLA Emirates for audit of consolidated financial statements
As an independent member firm of the CLA Global, ranked 15th worldwide in the 2025 IAB World Survey, we can direct component work through member firms rather than unfamiliar local providers. That matters when a group has entities in the GCC, South Asia or Europe or any part of the world reporting on different timetables.
What a group audit covers
- Component scoping and materiality allocation under ISA 600 (revised)
- Group instructions issued to component auditors
- Elimination of intragroup balances and unrealised profit
- Goodwill recognition and annual impairment testing
- Non-controlling interests and equity accounting
- Translation of foreign operations under IAS 21
- Consolidated cash flow statement and segment disclosure
