Al Moosa Enterprises, a Dubai conglomerate with interests spanning real estate, construction, automotive and interiors, plans to build three hotels spanning a million square feet of land on the Palm Jumeirah, to be operated by global hospitality brands Hilton, Taj and Marriott.
“We are not only expanding our footprint in the UAE, but also helping to strengthen Dubai’s tourism sector, by bringing an additional 1,500 hotel rooms to support the Government’s tourism vision,” Faisal Al Moosa, the company representative for Al Moosa Enterprise said on Sunday.
The hotels are already under construction and due for completion in 2019. They will bring the total number of hotels operated by Al Moosa to 16, with a total of 4,735 rooms. The group operates nine hotels in Dubai, including its oldest brand Golden Sands, Four Points by Sheraton and the Ramada Plaza in JBR, as well as two in Sharjah and two in Oman. The investment value of the latest three properties was not revealed.
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Hilton The Palm will be located on the trunk of the man-made Palm Jumeirah island and feature 608 rooms and suites. Marriott The Palm is a beachfront hotel on the trunk too, also with 608 rooms and suites, while the luxury Taj Exotica Resort & Spa is located on the eastern crescent of The Palm and aimed at the wealthy Indian expatriate community, Laurent Rigaud, Al Moosa's general manager of operations, told The National at the ATM travel show in Dubai.
Occupancy rates across Al Moosa’s hospitality portfolio stand at above 90 per cent, Mr Rigaud said – higher than the Dubai average of 77.7 per cent, according to a report from consultancy EY in March.
Mr Rigaud said he was anticipating another strong year for the group’s hotels, although he declined to reveal details of financial performance.
“There has been pressure due to increasing supply in the Dubai hotels market, but our occupancy rates are high,” Mr Rigaud said. “Dubai is a volume market – look at the continued expansion of Emirates airline and steady rise in visitor numbers recorded by Dubai Tourism. We are confident in growth for 2018.”
Al Moosa, which owns developer Arenco Real Estate, is also expanding in the residential real estate sector, with two projects under construction in Dubai and due to complete in 2020.
The first is a development of 20 to 25 villas in Jumeirah Village Circle and the second is a tower of around 400 Golden Sands-branded serviced apartments in Al Mankhool.
There are no plans to expand into Abu Dhabi at present, although over the longer term, Al Moosa may look to enter Saudi Arabia or other GCC markets other than Oman, where it owns the Crowne Plaza Muscat, Mr Rigaud said.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Running time: 81 minutes
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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An Islamic bond structured in a way to generate returns without violating Sharia strictures on prohibition of interest.
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
