Coca-Cola Arena is located in Dubai's City Walk district. Coca-Cola Arena.
Coca-Cola Arena is located in Dubai's City Walk district. Coca-Cola Arena.
Coca-Cola Arena is located in Dubai's City Walk district. Coca-Cola Arena.
Coca-Cola Arena is located in Dubai's City Walk district. Coca-Cola Arena.

On Stage

Dubai's Coca-Cola Arena to restart live events with new safety procedures

The indoor area will reopen on Friday for its first public event since February

The National

November 17, 2020

  • English
  • Arabic

The Coca-Cola Arena is opening its doors once again, with new social distancing and hygiene procedures in place to ensure the safety of visitors.

The indoor arena, which is located in Dubai's City Walk, will reopen on November 20, with the music event OJ Lifestyle presents Dark Knights Edition 1.0. The event will feature live performances from UK rappers and singers, including Mostack, Yungen and Not3s. The event will be hosted by British comedian Paul Chowdhry.

Chowdhry will also be taking to the Coca-Cola Arena stage for OJ Lifestyle presents Dark Laughs on Thursday, November 26.

This is the first show to take place at the arena since February. However, since the venue opened in June 2019, the Coca-Cola Arena has hosted several of sold-out events, including gigs from comic Russell Peters and band Maroon 5.

“We are very pleased to be able to provide live entertainment to the community of Dubai again,” Guy Ngata, chief executive of Coca-Cola Arena, said in a statement.

“There has been a tremendous amount of work implemented across many sectors in Dubai to get to this point, and we are pleased to now open our doors again with the safety of our guests of the utmost importance.”

Coca-Cola Arena’s new protocols and procedures have been developed in collaboration with Dubai Municipality, Ministry of Health and Prevention, Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing as well as the Arena’s management company, ASM Global.

The arena has also implemented an environmental hygiene protocol called VenueShield, which is said to provide the highest levels of cleanliness and safety using advanced hygienic safeguards.

“It’s critical that we assure people they are attending a safe environment allowing fans and artists to enjoy an amazing live experience, which we are confident will be the case,” Ngata said.

“Our VenueShield protocol is there to instil confidence in our guests as we all become accustomed to a new way of experiencing live events for the time being.”

Coca-Cola Arena also asks fans to remember the Dubai government’s message of “we are all responsible” and to not attend a live event if feeling unwell.

“It is important that fans are vigilant of their own surroundings and responsible in relation to their own well-being and that of others, in line with the consistent messaging communicated by the government of Dubai over the past months.”

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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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Stick to the schedule, says Mike Addo: “We have an entire wall known as ‘The Lab,’ covered with colour-coded Post-it notes dedicated to our joint weekly planner, content board, marketing strategy, trends, ideas and upcoming meetings.”

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US tops drug cost charts

The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.

Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.

In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.

Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol. 

The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.

High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.

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