More than a month after officials said the St Regis hotel on Saadiyat Island was to open, the doors are still closed to the public and an army of labourers remains on the site finishing off grounds, fitting lights, working on signs and polishing surfaces.
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It was an ambitious task to try to complete the sprawling luxury property - which has 377 rooms, five swimming pools, a 3,000- square-metre ballroom and seven restaurants and bars - in time for the Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi last month. But its developer is confident the resort will be ready by the end of this month for Abu Dhabi's next big international sporting event, the Volvo Ocean Race.
"[We have] been working on the finishing touches of the resort to ensure it reflects the St Regis legacy and brand promise," said Denis O'Connor, the executive director of operations at Abu Dhabi's Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC).
"The St Regis Saadiyat Island Resort is the official host hotel for Volvo Ocean Race during its Abu Dhabi stopover," he said, which means that many of the people associated with the event will be accommodated there. "The resort will open by the end of December in time for the first public activity."
In October, TDIC said the hotel was on track to receive its first paying guests on November 7.
Starwood Hotels and Resorts, the company running the hotel, believes it will succeed because of its picturesque beach location.
"I believe Saadiyat Island will offer something very new and exciting to Abu Dhabi," said John Pelling, the general manger of the St Regis hotel.
"Our main markets for rooms will be from the UK, Germany and GCC. In our food and beverage venues, we expect the domestic Abu Dhabi residents to enjoy our offerings - something new and hopefully refreshing in this marketplace."
The hotel will eventually have about 700 employees.
There are also residential elements to the property. Handing over of the 32 St Regis-branded villas to buyers will start in the first quarter of next year, TDIC said. There are also 259 St Regis apartments, available only to lease, and those will begin to become available next month.
Development on the island as a whole has been slower than originally anticipated.
Work on the major museums - the Louvre, the Zayed National Museum and the Guggenheim - has been delayed. TDIC also said it had slowed the roll-out of other hotels on the island. The cost originally projected for the entire Saadiyat Island master plan was US$27 billion (Dh99.17bn).
The Saadiyat Beach golf course opened last year, and the Monte Carlo Beach Club opened in September.
The Dh1bn Park Hyatt, the first hotel to open on the island, opened at the beginning of last month.
"With all the new hotels coming in, now we can market to the leisure visitors," said Thierry Bertin, the vice president of worldwide sales for Hyatt South West Asia. "It's a competitive environment [in Abu Dhabi]. It's going to take some years for the demand to grow to feed the supply."
At the Park Hyatt on Saadiyat, "we have already tourism coming from Germany, from Russia, from China, and from the region", he said. Hyatt is also opening its Capital Gate hotel in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
rbundhun@thenational.ae
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The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
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- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
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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.”
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
