Meydan, the private developer behind the world’s largest horse racing complex, yesterday unveiled plans to build an airline pilots’ village as part of the second phase of the Dh21 billion Mohammed bin Rashid City megaproject in Dubai.
Mohammed bin Rashid City – District Eleven, a collection of 1,500 four-bedroom semi-detached villas spanning a total of 450,000 square metres, will be let to Emirates Airline pilots.
Separately Meydan will also build 700 four-bedroom villas for sale comprising another 210,000 square metres.
The project, next to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road and Al Ain Road, will also include a new private school, Kent College Canterbury – Meydan, a tie-up between Meydan and the Mir Hashem Khoory group.
The school will specialise in equestrian training and will eventually accommodate up to 2,000 students from year 1 to 12 based around the British curriculum, Meydan said.
The company declined to say how much the project would cost to build.
“District Eleven will become a sought-after suburban community in Dubai as we bring in outstanding education facilities, complemented by one-of-a-kind landscaping and green space,” said the Meydan chairman Saeed Humaid Al Tayer.
At last year's Cityscape, Meydan and the Indian developer Sobha announced that they would be building the first phase of Mohammed bin Rashid City – 1,500 luxury villas set in 1,100 acres of parkland around the world's biggest man-made lagoon – known as District One.
The Mohammed bin Rashid City project, located between Sheikh Zayed Road, Emirates Road and Al Khail Road, was announced in November 2012. At the time it was slated to comprise the world’s biggest shopping mall dubbed the Mall of the World and more than 100 hotels.
However, since then the task of building the Mall of the World has been passed to the government conglomerate Dubai Properties and located on land it owns off the Sheikh Zayed Road.
Speaking at a press conference at Cityscape yesterday, Khalfan Bel Houl, vice president for strategy at Dubai Holding, told reporters that the first phase of the Dh25bn Mall of the World will be complete three years from the moment construction work starts on the site.
However, he declined to give any details as to how the megaproject would be funded or what elements from the master plan would be included in the first phase.
He added that 180 million shoppers would visit the mall each year.
The MBR City project, which was announced by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in November, represents a revival of a similar Mohammed bin Rashid Gardens project, which was first announced in 2008 but never came off the drawing board because of the global financial crisis.
The 2008 master plan had suggested the Gardens project would cover 74 square kilometres and cost US$60bn.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
Follow The National's Business section on Twitter
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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.”
