Fassel flies the flag for du's debut in social networking

Rotana, the Saudi media giant, is providing du with content for the telecommunications operator's upcoming social networking website.

Yousef Mugharbil, the president of Rotana Digital Media, said the company would provide music and videos for the website codenamed "Fassel" - Arabic for tailored or customised.

"We have a licensing agreement with [du]," Mr Mugharbil said on the sidelines of the Telecoms World Middle East conference. "We want to be a full-circuit entertainment company across all touchpoints of media sources."

Rotana is one of the Arab world's largest media companies, with about 85 per cent of the music market. It also has 60 per cent of the film distribution and production market. The company has been involved in a series of deals over the past year that has broadened its reach across digital and telecoms channels. In July, Rotana formed a partnership with Yahoo Middle East to provide the website with Arabic multimedia content and it has tied up similar deals with Meditel in Morocco.

Raghu Venkataraman, the chief strategy and investments officer for du, acknowledged that Rotana would be providing content to the Fassel website but declined to give further details.

"Rotana has been a partner of ours for a couple of years now and they do provide exclusive content with du," said Mr Venkataraman. Fassel is du's pan-Arab digital strategy, a sort of online Mall of the Emirates packed with gaming, music, sport and streaming video. It is being tested in private beta and is likely to be officially launched by the end of this year.

"What I've seen is really exciting," said Mr Mugharbil. "Today, you go to the operator and they offer consumers Dh200 for eight megabytes of data, for example. That's great, but what is at the end of this eight megabytes? I can only go to Facebook so many times, so you need local destinations."

Mr Mugharbil said the exclusive content Rotana could provide would set it apart from other telecoms operators looking to retain customers in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

"Why is the iPhone so popular? Not because they have 440,000 applications but because they have 440,000 destinations," said Mr Mugharbil.

"Likewise, we are working on destinations in our business that has to do with movies, music and anything that has to do with entertainment. It will be on mobile, online and on your desktop."

dgeorgecosh@thenational.ae

Cultural fiesta

What: The Al Burda Festival
When: November 14 (from 10am)
Where: Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi
The Al Burda Festival is a celebration of Islamic art and culture, featuring talks, performances and exhibitions. Organised by the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, this one-day event opens with a session on the future of Islamic art. With this in mind, it is followed by a number of workshops and “masterclass” sessions in everything from calligraphy and typography to geometry and the origins of Islamic design. There will also be discussions on subjects including ‘Who is the Audience for Islamic Art?’ and ‘New Markets for Islamic Design.’ A live performance from Kuwaiti guitarist Yousif Yaseen should be one of the highlights of the day.

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.”

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.