UAE executive pay 2025: 61 senior executives pocket AED 422.52m, Alabbar tops list
Analysis shows UAE executive pay 2025 totalled AED 422.52m across 10 listed firms; top 10 executives received AED 189.76m led by Mohamed Alabbar (AED 61.3m).
Aggregate payouts and overall figures
Sixty-one senior executives at ten major companies listed on the Dubai Financial Market and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange received a combined AED 422.52 million in salaries, allowances and bonuses for 2025. This total was compiled from company governance and integrated reports published on the two exchanges during the reporting period.
The data shows a high concentration of pay: the ten highest-paid individuals claimed roughly 44.9 percent of the total, together receiving AED 189.76 million. That concentration underscores a pronounced skew in executive compensation within the sampled cohort.
Top individual earners and their packages
Mohamed Alabbar, the managing director and board member of Emaar Properties, was the single largest recipient with total pay and work-related travel expenses of about AED 61.3 million for 2025. The package reported for Alabbar includes base salary, allowances, bonuses and business travel costs disclosed in the company’s annual governance filings.
Ranking second was Hatem Dweidar, the former group CEO of E & during 2025, who received approximately AED 20.24 million in combined salary, allowances and long-term incentive awards. Rounding out the top five were Khaled Jasim bin Kalban of Dubai Investments (AED 18.36m), Jassim Hussein Thabet of the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company—TAQA (AED 15.14m) and Amit Jain, CEO of Emaar Group (AED 14.28m).
Other senior recipients and firm representation
Additional executives among the top ten included Talal Al Thiabi of Aldar Properties at AED 13.41 million and Fahd Al Hasaawi of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du) at AED 13.05 million. Yasser Nasr Zaghloul of NMDC Group reported AED 12.66 million, while Masoud Mohammed Sharif, serving as E & UAE CEO during 2025, received AED 12.07 million. The tenth spot was held by Amer Khan Sahib, managing director and CEO of Union Properties, with total payouts of AED 9.24 million.
The sample covers a cross-section of sectors—real estate, energy, telecommunications and gas—highlighting that high executive pay is not limited to a single industry within the UAE listed market.
Composition of compensation and disclosure elements
Reported packages typically combined fixed elements such as annual salary and allowances with variable elements like annual performance bonuses and long-term incentive plans. In several cases the disclosures also included employer contributions to pensions, insurance benefits and non-cash incentives, as well as travel and business expenses tied to executive duties.
Companies noted that some awards paid in 2025 related to performance periods in prior years, reflecting common practice where bonuses and long-term incentives vest over multiple reporting periods. This practice complicates direct year-on-year comparisons and underscores the need to read integrated reports alongside governance notes for full context.
Governance, transparency and investor considerations
The figures were drawn from governance and integrated reports filed on the Dubai and Abu Dhabi exchanges, where disclosure rules require listed companies to report remuneration policies and executive pay tallies. Transparency of disclosure allows investors and stakeholders to assess pay-for-performance alignment, but the concentration of payouts among a small group of executives may prompt further scrutiny by governance committees and institutional investors.
Market participants and governance advisers typically assess whether incentive structures support long-term shareholder value, and whether remuneration committees provide adequate justification for outsized awards. The mix of cash, deferred awards and benefits remains central to those evaluations.
Implications for UAE corporate pay practices
The 2025 data points highlight ongoing debates about executive compensation levels in the region as listed companies balance talent retention with stakeholder expectations. With nearly half of total payouts accruing to the top ten earners in this sample, firms may face pressure to demonstrate clear links between pay and measurable performance outcomes.
Regulators and market bodies continue to refine disclosure expectations, and heightened investor engagement could encourage greater granularity in future reporting cycles.
Recent company reports and exchange filings remain the primary source for remuneration figures, and stakeholders looking to compare year-on-year changes should consult the original integrated and governance reports on the Dubai Financial Market and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange sites.