The Ultima World (DIFC) Limited: the Dubai wealth manager

analysisThe DFSA public register lists The Ultima World (DIFC) Limited, a DIFC company with DFSA reference number F004980 and the trading name 'The Ultima World Wealth Management Platform', at Unit 1002, Level 10, Index Tower, DIFC, Dubai, with a licence dated 21 January 2020. Its endorsements allow it to serve retail clients and to hold or control client assets, and its licensed services are advising on financial products, arranging custody, arranging deals in investments, dealing in investments as agent, managing assets and providing custody, for instruments including shares, structured products, derivatives, debentures and fund units. A column by its senior executive officer Andrey Chuprin in a regional finance publication gives its DIFC licence number as CL3568. The guarantor's statements report the firm's capital as share capital of USD 1,200 thousand and retained earnings of USD 14,637 thousand at the end of 2024, and share capital of USD 4,200 thousand and retained earnings of USD 14,623 thousand at the end of 2025, with Tier 1 capital of USD 13,170 thousand (2024: USD 9,174 thousand). ^{1 2 3 4}

analysisThe DFSA register lists as current authorised individuals of the firm Edward Golosov (licensed director since 21 January 2020), Alina Perepelkina (finance officer and senior manager since 21 January 2020), Rafik Faik Ogly Abasov (licensed director since 21 January 2020), Anton Gordin (authorised since 21 January 2020, with a further function from 7 May to 29 July 2024) and Andrey Chuprin (licensed director and senior executive officer since 10 July 2024). Former authorised individuals are Denis Zabolotnev (licensed director and senior executive officer, 10 November 2023 to 26 April 2024), Stephen Lee Coles (compliance officer, money laundering reporting officer and senior manager, 21 January 2020 to 6 October 2020), Evgenii Tolpykin (senior manager, compliance officer and money laundering reporting officer, 21 October 2020 to 11 October 2024), Simon Victor James Gilder (the same functions, 5 November 2024 to 31 July 2026), Sergey Kaminskiy (senior manager, 21 January 2020 to 31 May 2024) and Alexander Zakharkin (senior manager, 4 June 2024 to 6 August 2026). ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11}

analysisThe firm's website theultima.com describes its team as Edward Golosov, PhD (executive chairman of the board of directors), Andrey Chuprin (senior executive officer), Vyacheslav Ermilov (chief operating officer) and Iveta Wilkinson (human resources director). In self-descriptions on professional-networking profiles, Golosov, based in London, and Chuprin, based in Dubai, name The Ultima World and The Ultima World (DIFC) respectively as their current employers. ^{12 13 14}

analysisThe website presents The Ultima World as a DIFC-headquartered, DFSA-regulated wealth manager for affluent clients, giving its DFSA licence year and figures of USD 1.7 billion in total assets under custody and more than 3,000 clients worldwide, with offices, staff and partners in America, Europe, Asia and Africa and service 'with cultural sensitivity and complete discretion'. These are marketing figures from the company's own website, not audited; the group's audited statements report customer brokerage accounts of USD 799,314 thousand at the end of 2025, which is a different measure from assets under custody. The website's cookie notice says visitor data are shared with the analytics services Google Analytics and Yandex Metrika, and links to a cookie policy file named 'BCS_Capital_DIFC_Cookies_processing_policy.pdf', after the firm's former name. ^{1 2}

analysisA Russian business magazine reported on 7 September 2023 that it had found signs that three Russian financial companies, 'BCS Ultima', Alfa and Aton, were trying to provide services in Dubai without publicising it, citing for 'BCS Ultima' a website with a Dubai contact number; according to the article, all three companies preferred not to discuss their activity in the region. The article does not name a legal entity behind 'BCS Ultima'; at the time the group's DIFC firm operated as BCS Capital (DIFC) Limited. ¹

analysisA tax adviser's post on a Russian business blogging platform said that Russian clients of 'The Ultima World', which it described as the commercial name of BCS Capital (DIFC) Limited, part of the BCS group, were receiving requests from the Russian tax service for their contracts with the firm, statements and information on their 2023 tax residence and foreign income, prompted by the automatic exchange of tax information. The post describes requests to clients, not any action against the firm. ²