Apple is set to reopen its three retail stores in the UAE from Monday as authorities ease Covid-19 restrictions.
The technology company has two stores in Dubai, at Mall of the Emirates and Dubai Mall, and a third at Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi.
Apple told The National that it will carry out temperature checks and limit the number of people in the stores to observe social distancing norms.
The stores will open from 11am to 7.30pm.
“We are excited to begin welcoming visitors back to some of our UAE stores this Monday ... we have missed our customers and look forward to offering our support,” the company said.
“With many [consumers] working and learning from home, we look forward to providing the service and support they need, whether that be picking up a new product or getting help with one they already own.”
Apple is responding to the gradual easing of restrictions by reopening stores in countries where Covid-19 infection rates are showing signs of slowing down.
The company, which is based in Cupertino, California, closed more than 50 stores in Greater China in January after the pandemic first took hold and reopened them in March.
It then closed all of its stores outside Greater China as the virus spread around the world. This affected more than 460 stores, including about 270 in the US.
Of its 510 outlets worldwide, 278 are now open. That number will rise to 281 when the UAE stores reopen today.
“Newly reopened stores will have significant safety procedures, including temperature checks, social distancing and face coverings to ensure customers and employees continue to stay healthy,” Apple said.
“Our social distance protocol means a limited number of visitors in the store at [any] one time, so there may be a delay for walk-in customers.”
Apple said in May that its decision to reopen stores was based on “local conditions” and could be reversed, if necessary.
“Our commitment is to only move forward with a reopening once we are confident we can safely return to serving customers,” Deirdre O’Brien, the company’s senior vice president of retail and people, said.
“These are not decisions we rush into ... and a store opening in no way means that we won’t take the preventive step of closing it again should local conditions warrant [such]."
Apple’s employees are returning to the workplace gradually, with the first phase applying to employees who cannot work remotely. The second phase will begin in July.
Covid-19 restrictions also affected Apple’s performance in the first quarter of the year. The company’s iPhone sales declined 8.2 per cent year on year to 41 million units during the period.
Supply chain disruptions and lower consumer spending as a result of movement restrictions affected Apple’s sales, said Annette Zimmermann, research vice-president at Gartner.
“If Covid-19 would not have happened, the vendor would have likely seen its iPhone sales reach record levels in the quarter,” she said.
While Apple does not disclose its retail store revenue in its results, direct sales, including the contribution of retail and online stores, accounted for more than 30 per cent of its $260.17 billion (Dh955.6bn) in revenue last year.
Meanwhile, the company has designed, tested and distributed more than 10 million face shields and procured more than 30 million face masks for healthcare professionals in areas hit hard by the coronavirus across the world.
In a rare partnership, it also teamed up with Google to introduce contact-tracing technology to reduce the spread of the virus.
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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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