UAE-based Clarity Consulting acquired by global player Ocorian
Clarity Consulting, a UAE-based regulatory and compliance consultancy, has been acquired by global player Ocorian.
Founded in 2020 by Natalie Hodgins and Shamshad Khan, Clarity Consulting is a boutique firm that provides services including compliance advisory, support with licence applications, outsourced compliance solutions, regulatory and compliance reviews, and remediation support for financial services firms in both the Dubai International Financial Centre and Abu Dhabi Global Market freezones.
Clarity Consulting also works with high-net-worth families (family offices) and investment funds.
The deal with Ocorian will see Clarity Consulting become part of a global consultancy and services provider to the financial services landscape.
Headquartered in the UK, Ocorian provides fund administration, capital markets, corporate and compliance solutions. The company has around 2,000 people working from 20 offices worldwide – they serve over 8,000 clients.
The Clarity Consulting team will become part of the Regulatory and Compliance Solutions business, which serves clients in the UK, the US, Channel Islands, Europe, the Middle East, Mauritius, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Chantal Free, Chief Executive Officer at Ocorian, said: “This acquisition is tremendously exciting for us as we expand our capabilities for asset managers and asset owners across the Middle East. The UAE is an increasingly important market for our clients, who look to us to support them with globally consistent, expert-led and technology-enabled solutions across the world.”
To put the “exciting” opportunity highlighted by Ocorian’s CEO into perspective – the GCC region has been experiencing one of the fastest growth globally in assets under management. Boston Consulting Group expects this trend to continue in the coming years, creating significant growth opportunities for service providers such as Ocorian.
Shamshad Khan, Partner and co-Founder at Clarity Consulting, said: “We are confident that our clients will benefit from the expanded scope that we are now able to provide. Our partnership with Ocorian enables us to accelerate our growth ambitions and brings our clients and our team more opportunities as we access Ocorian’s wider network.”
For Ocorian, the acquisition of Clarity follows the acquisition of E78 Fund Solutions in the US in 2025 and of UK-based consulting firm Bovill in 2024.
