Men with tired faces and towels slung over their shoulders line the trampled grass. As they await access to a hot shower, others emerge from tents with cups of steaming hot tea in hand. Flags fly, shoes dry and sausages fry.
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On British Grand Prix weekend, camping is a time-served tradition at Silverstone, a quaint village deep in the heart of England's self-proclaimed Motorsport Valley.
Yet with the recent emergence of an expansive site owned by the hamlet's international racing circuit, nearby family-run campsites are being forced out of business.
"We can accommodate about 400 people, but this year we only have around 150," said Niki Thomas, who along with husband Andy owns Cavalier Fields and have together been providing race enthusiasts with a place to pitch up for the past 10 years.
"We hire toilets and showers and it all costs money, but with everyone now choosing to stay down at the circuit, I'm not sure we'll be able to do it next year."
The Thomases charge £70 (Dh412) per pitch for three nights, a price that reflects their location about 40 minutes by foot from the circuit.
"People bring their bikes and they're at the track within 15 minutes," she said. "We get the same customers each year and have built a core group of campers. They often book the following year not long after they leave, but this year numbers are down because a lot of them are going to the Silverstone campsite."
David Wilson, owner of the Hamilton Fields campsite, said his business has also "felt the pinch in the past two years" since the opening of the vast Silverstone Woodlands Camp Site in 2010.
The official site can accommodate more than 11,000 people, while Wilson's is capable of hosting around 1,000. This weekend Hamilton Field is being called home by "around 600 campers" with a pitch costing around £35 each night.
"It's a shame for the local industry," Wilson said. "But there's not a great deal we can do, to be honest. All we can hope is the people feel maybe it's too crowded down there and decide to come back to those who have treated them well in the past."
Richard Phillips, the managing director at Silverstone, said the intention was never to hurt local business, but rather to encourage improvement.
"We were keen to upgrade the camping around Silverstone because people associate everything that happens around the British Grand Prix with us and sometimes it's not us," Phillips said.
"There has been quite a lot of investment there because camping in a farmer's field is one thing, but camping in a place that is custom-built is altogether different."
The Silverstone Woodlands Camp Site is located directly behind the circuit's famous Stowe Corner, offers various food outlets and a fully licensed bar and provides live music from local bands. A three-night stay for an adult costs £60. While Phillips conceded that the price includes a small percentage mark-up he added that "we certainly won't be retiring off the proceeds",
"It's not about the money," he said. "We are hoping other camp sites now will want to compete with [us] and will upgrade as well. Obviously, we need hotels too, but that is the way we see that sort of accommodation around Silverstone moving forward."
The Litchlake Field site, about a five-minute walk to the circuit entrance, is one such venue to upgrade. It now offers an F1 village complete with official merchandise shops, licensed bar and a selection or food options ranging from traditional fish and chips to Asian-style noodles.
Leigh Smith, sheltering inside his tent from the morning drizzle yesterday, said he would continue staying at Litchlake Field because "It's tradition; I always stay here."
He added, between bites of a home-made sausage sandwich: "You're here all weekend and you get to know the people around you. It makes for a great atmosphere and is only £20 a night."
Not all campsites involve tent pegs and wind sheets, however. The only campsite within the circuit grounds belongs to the British Racing Drivers Club and its list of residents this weekend reads like a Who's Who of Formula One.
"This is proper 'glamping'," said Nathan, a British soldier dressed in fatigues and guarding the exclusive site filled with luxurious rented motorhomes.
"Sebastian Vettel is staying here, Jenson Button's here, Paul di Resta, David Coulthard, Nigel Mansell … there's a lot of them."
The site is split by a small asphalt road, the visible divide between homes of F1 personnel and that of BRDC members.
Golf buggies shuttle residents from campsite to clubhouse, while drivers tend to travel to the paddock by moped.
A grandiose statue of Icarus sporting a pair of exhausts rather than a set of feathered wings greets members on entry to the temporary VIP lounge.
"Most of this isn't here outside race week," Nathan said. "It's rented just for the weekend and a lot of us think it's all a bit over the top."
On Friday, a red Ferrari was parked outside Vettel's motorhome, while Rubens Barrichello's was identifiable by a yellow Porsche. The bins contained empty bottles of Evian water rather than aluminium cans, and bananas prove more popular with "glampers" than Pot Noodles. There also was no queue for the showers.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Ajax v Juventus, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match on BeIN Sports
Leading all-time NBA scorers
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 38,387
Karl Malone 36,928
Kobe Bryant 33,643
Michael Jordan 32,292
LeBron James 31,425
Wilt Chamberlain 31,419
FIXTURES
Monday, January 28
Iran v Japan, Hazza bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Tuesday, January 29
UAEv Qatar, Mohamed Bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Friday, February 1
Final, Zayed Sports City Stadium (6pm)
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.”
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20HyveGeo%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abdulaziz%20bin%20Redha%2C%20Dr%20Samsurin%20Welch%2C%20Eva%20Morales%20and%20Dr%20Harjit%20Singh%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ECambridge%20and%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%208%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESustainability%20%26amp%3B%20Environment%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24200%2C000%20plus%20undisclosed%20grant%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVenture%20capital%20and%20government%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
