I set two “personal best” records recently: fastest journey from Abu Dhabi to Dubai; and slowest journey along Sheikh Zayed Road, though the latter should really be regarded as a personal “worst”.
Leaving the capital after a meeting that had gone on much longer than expected, I stepped into the back seat of a car at 5.45pm and zoomed off along Al Muroor. I had a meeting in Jumeirah Emirates Tower at 6.30pm, and realised straight away I would not make that.
I called my friend — a man who likes to linger, like me, over a cigar while talking shop — that I’d be late for the appointment in The Agency in Emirates Towers, one of the best cigar joints in Dubai. Would he wait for me until 7.30pm? Yes, of course, he said, though I sensed a bit of frustration.
I hate being late for appointments, especially pleasurable ones such as this promised.
Well, hats off to the driver, who stuck like glue to the fast lane without ever breaking the speed limit, as far as I noticed.
By 6.40pm we were passing the Dubai Marina area, and I texted my friend to tell him I’d be at the cigar bar by 7pm. Excellent, he replied … would I prefer Cohiba or Montecristo? Montecristo I replied, already savouring the flavour.
I spoke too soon, of course. As soon as we hit Mall of the Emirates, it began: a solid wall of red tail lights disappearing off into the distance along SZR, as far as the eye could see.
The French have a neat phrase for a traffic jam, “embouteillage”, which means literally “bottle stopper”. It’s a graphic expression: you are literally corked into a bottle, with no hope of escaping.
That’s how I felt on the SZR that night — like a cork stuck tight in the neck of a bottle.
As an SZR veteran, I know that sometimes, around the Al Manara turning, the traffic tended to thin out. No such luck this time.
I texted my friend it might be 7.15pm. Wishful thinking.
The next spot where the bottle was sometimes uncorked on SZR was at the Al Hadiqa/Meydan turn-off, but again the jam just ground on and on. We were crawling, stopping, accelerating, braking.
Of course, there was a reason, but it wasn’t an accident or a road closure. In a word, it was Cityscape. As I approached the Trade Centre area (I was to turn off SZR just before it) you could see the whole area was one big parking lot of vehicles trying to leave the region’s biggest property exhibition.
I don’t know about the property at Cityscape, but nothing was moving under, around or over the Trade Centre roundabout.
I was grateful when we turned off before, at the exit to DIFC and Emirates Towers. Anybody heading towards Sharjah was in for a long nightmare.
As I pulled up outside the hotel, I looked at my watch: 7.40pm. It had taken me nearly an hour to travel 17km.
I needn’t have worried. My friend had found a charming companion to while away the time with, and the Cohiba (I changed my mind when the box was presented) tasted even better for the postponement of the first draw. The conversation — mainly about in vitro fertilisation — was excellent and informative.
I savoured the cigar, and after a while left my friend to the delights of his dinner companion.
I got a Dubai taxi from outside the hotel, and did the same journey — in the opposite direction — in 12 minutes.
fkane@thenational.ae
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
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Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
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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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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.”