The headquarters of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company sits at the intersection of the imposing Emirates Palace and Etihad Towers - but for many years Adnoc's was the only building there.
As it was when Naiema Al Maskari, arrived for her first day at work in 1984, and she was also the first on the block - the first Emirati woman to join the marketing division, the group that arranges the sale of the country's most important export to customers around the world. With the only other female expatriates working as secretaries for the mostly foreign staff, the graduate fresh out of the University of Sussex found herself alone.
"I wanted to do some very important things in my life," she recalls. "It's the largest revenue producer in the country. My intention was just to participate."
Today she heads a budget team of 14, evenly split between men and women. Women make up about 10 per cent of the marketing division, forecasting oil prices for the coming year, representing the UAE at Opec meetings and making sure supplies make it to customers in the Far East.
Thanks to initiatives such as an exclusively female engineering college at the capital's Petroleum Institute and abaya-friendly field uniforms, the faces of Adnoc's employees have changed as radically as the landscape of the Corniche.
But like their counterparts in the rest of the world, female nationals face a work and family balancing act, often compounded because of local tradition. Few women in the UAE have progressed beyond non-technical middle-management roles, in contrast to Kuwait and Oman, where a Kuwaiti woman heads a private exploration company and Omani women occupy top engineering positions.
The Adnoc group currently employs 12,500 Emiratis, according to data from the company for this year, of which a little more than 2,000 are women, or 16 per cent of the national workforce. The numbers of women have doubled since 2007.
"We are proud of the numbers we have today," says Sultan Al Mehairi, Adnoc's marketing and refining director. "Of course we always look forward to seeing a bigger number of ladies and also to see them in management roles in the future. "We were the first to employ females because there were some jobs where we thought females could give a bigger result.
"Most of them are working very hard. If they are not equal, [they are] even better."
Hessa Al Kuwaiti, a supply coordinator for refined products, joined Adnoc in 2006. Although she is technically on call 24 hours a day, seven days of the week, she says the company understands her boundaries. "Due to our job we're going for meetings and conferences with the clients, and the management understands that we're ladies," she says.
"If there is something excluding the girls, they are respecting the tradition and the culture. The family, they won't accept sitting with men at dinner or staying late at night."
Women decide for themselves how far to progress, says a colleague, Shamma Al Mehairbi, a supply coordinator. "If they see that the lady is able to attend and meet with clients, this is a chance for her to progress to a management position. Because if not, it's hard."
The key is getting support from family, says Ms Al Maskari, whose husband works in Adnoc's retail arm. Nannies, help from her parents and early working hours ending at 2pm or 3pm enabled her to raise children while working.
"Commitment is very important because without it you don't get anywhere. And balance. If you are not happy at home, you will not be happy in the office," she adds. "These days we need people to participate; we have a lot still to do. When you're at home, you're saying, 'Oh, I can't go work with men.' But everyone is supportive and respects the ladies."
ayee@thenational.ae
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Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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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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How to turn your property into a holiday home
- Ensure decoration and styling – and portal photography – quality is high to achieve maximum rates.
- Research equivalent Airbnb homes in your location to ensure competitiveness.
- Post on all relevant platforms to reach the widest audience; whether you let personally or via an agency know your potential guest profile – aiming for the wrong demographic may leave your property empty.
- Factor in costs when working out if holiday letting is beneficial. The annual DCTM fee runs from Dh370 for a one-bedroom flat to Dh1,200. Tourism tax is Dh10-15 per bedroom, per night.
- Check your management company has a physical office, a valid DTCM licence and is licencing your property and paying tourism taxes. For transparency, regularly view your booking calendar.
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Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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