'The first day of Eid is always about our families'

DUBAI // Four-year-old Mahrukh Naqvi got up an hour before sunrise yesterday and proceeded to wake her entire family so they could begin Eid celebrations.

"She was so excited about the gifts she knew she would be getting," said her father, Abbas Naqvi, a Pakistani expatriate who has lived in Dubai for 11 years. "She couldn't sleep, she woke up at 5.30am."

Mahrukh then waited until her grandparents, parents and uncle returned from prayers before she tore open her brightly wrapped gifts.

Children are often given "Eidi" or gifts in cash by family during Eid in his home of Karachi, said Mr Naqvi.

"It's part of the tradition to give children money, but here the trend has been to give toys rather than cash," he said.

Mahrukh's Eidi gifts included a doctor's kit, a toy and a bubble gun, which she began playing with even before the family had a breakfast of parathas (flat bread), lamb kebabs and a milk sweet with dry fruits.

"It's a day the family spends together," Mr Naqvi said. All the relatives headed to Dubai's Mushrif Park to join friends for a barbecue.

Hala al Rahma, an Emirati housewife, also spent the day with family. Though her husband had travelled to Saudi Arabia for the Haj, she took her young children to the Al Garhoud home where her father, mother and grandmother live.

Two dozen relatives gathered for lunch and feasted on meat that an uncle had brought from the slaughterhouse that morning. Another 50 relatives stopped by throughout the afternoon to wish the grandmother Eid Mubarak. They brought gifts for the children from Dh5 up to Dh50.

"The first day of Eid is always for families - gathering and having lunch with the oldest person of the family," said Ms al Rahma.

Many women spent a large part of yesterday cooking for lunches and preparing for evening beach barbecues. Farida Mukadam was busy in Deira cooking up the meat her husband bought from an abattoir.

Mrs Mukadam, who has lived in Dubai for 18 years, had divided the dinner menu with friends that her family planned to meet at Jumeirah Beach. She was preparing mutton biryani and samosas, a triangular shaped pastry, for the Eid meal.

"We do a kurbani [sacrifice] of two goats," said Mrs Mukadam, who helps her husband with his imitation-gem jewellery business.

"My husband and son distribute the meat to relatives and friends. This is part of the giving in Eid, where we share with others."

Mrs Mukadam's family meet in parks across the region to celebrate Eid. "Last year, we went to Jebel Hafeet in Al Ain," she said. "We try and go to different places to celebrate Eid together."

Zahra Hussain, 63, a housewife from India's Rajasthan state, took the milk pudding sheer khorma along with meat curries to share with 14 friends who meet twice a year at a farmhouse near Ajman.

"This is the Eid of sacrifice, that's what it symbolises," Mrs Hussain said. "I ask my family in India to sacrifice two goats and to distribute the meat to the poor. Mostly, people sacrifice one or two goats to distribute to family and the needy."

Non-Muslims also joined in the Eid traditions and festivities.

Amjad Hanna, a Jordanian Christian living in Dubai with his wife and son, visited their Muslim friends to wish them Happy Eid. They chatted with the adults and gave the children small gifts.

"As an Arabic community, we really share the Eid holiday, though of course not the religious part," he said. "We just try to wish everyone Happy Eid."

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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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Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

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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