DUBAI// At least 40 stray cats which had been looked after and fed for years by caring residents at Jebel Ali Village have all mysteriously disappeared.
The alarm was raised when the cats did not show up on Sunday for their daily feed.
“A lot of cats were left behind six years ago when people left the area for it to be redeveloped,” said one resident, who used to regularly feed the cats but asked not to be named.
“They have been cared for by various individuals. On the weekend, we noticed that there were no cats in the two roads where they usually are. We have been asking the municipality, and everybody else, and everyone is denying knowing anything. It appears that the cats have vanished overnight.
“Where are they? Nobody knows what’s going on.”
She said that the residents had the cats neutered and treated by vets, so they were all anxious about what has happened to them.
“We did not take the time to trap, sterilise and feed them, just for them to be taken away.”
Dubai Municipality said none of its teams had captured the animals.
“When we get complaints, we take the cats,” said Ghaith Al Falasi, head of the control unit at the municipality’s veterinary services. “But we don’t enter private developments.”
The municipality regularly traps stray cats, neuters and releases them if they are not sick or aggressive.
The Jebel Ali Primary School recently sent a letter to parents seeking their help to give the animals new homes.
“At least 10 feral cats have been around the school campus, spraying, urinating and littering areas frequented by pupils,” said the notice sent to students on February 4.
“Staff are now avoiding certain areas due to this problem. This cannot continue. The school has been active in contacting various support groups to assist in the relocation of these cats, with little success.
“We have made sure food sources are not available on the campus, as this will encourage them to stay and more to come. Some have already started to relocate. We have not instigated any inhumane response in this regard. If any of you are able to assist in the relocation of these animals, your help would be gratefully received.”
The school did not respond to requests for a comment.
Lorraine Ludman, a volunteer who helps raise funds to neuter stray cats, said she hoped the animals had not been left to die.
“The mystery is what happened to them? Somebody knows something about it. How do we know they could not have been driven to the desert and dumped there?
Ms Ludman said cats were important in a community.
“Rats are a vermin and cats are the natural solution. People paid out of their pockets to sterilise them. Someone has just thrown away Dh40,000 of our money.”
Developer Nakheel said it was not aware of the issue and had not taken any action.
pkannan@thenational.ae
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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