Get ready to party “billionaire” style in Saudi Arabia.
Italian entertainment mogul and former Formula One team executive Flavio Briatore is bringing his successful nightclub-turned-theatre restaurant brand Billionaire to the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh in January.
The venue, which is currently being constructed, will be the brand’s biggest in terms of size, and will serve as the crown jewel of Briatore’s burgeoning Saudi portfolio, which will also include Italian-Japanese fusion restaurant Twiga, set to open next year.
"It will be so much larger in Saudi Arabia with a keen focus on the food," he tells The National. "For one thing, it will have a 20-metre grill, which is the largest I've ever seen, and there will be live performances in terms of music and acrobatics in the future."
While opening an entertainment venue during the pandemic is risky, Billionaire’s expansion into Saudi Arabia comes off the back of a winning formula hatched in Italy and perfected in the UAE.
With more than two decades of running Billionaire under his belt, expanding it from its original home in Sardinia, Italy, to the Spanish city Marbella, before landing in Dubai in 2016, Briatore immediately realised the unfolding pandemic would be a game changer for the entertainment scene.
"Everyone was put out of work. Theatre companies and clubs closed down,” he says. “I had to sit down and rethink everything. Business is about adaptation and flexibility."
Briatore, 70, may be talking business, but it is a viewpoint honed from another career. One even more risky and highly charged.
Life in the fast lane
As a former manager of Benetton and Renault's Formula One racing teams, and the man largely credited with discovering German driving legend Michael Schumacher, Briatore credits his stints in the paddocks for his ability to both analyse and anticipate.
“At the end of the day, in racing, what you are really selling is not a car but a product,” he says. “So to be successful in the market you have to be quick and make the necessary adjustments when needed.”
In June, Briatore decided to apply the monkey wrench to Billionaire Porto Cervo in Sardinia, parking the nightclub concept indefinitely.
The dance floor, trodden upon by a host of celebrities including Naomi Campbell, Paris Hilton, P Diddy and Jude Law, made way for dinner tables, while the DJ booth was replaced with an opulent stage.
The move to a "dinner show" concept, Briatore explains, was down to mixture of practicality and opportunity. After ensuring he built a safe place for patrons, he recruited a number of acclaimed performers, all of whom were suddenly unemployed because of the pandemic.
"We managed to get people from Cirque du Soleil and other big companies because they were available," he says. "With the right team we managed to do something amazing, a mix of dinner and a circus."
An evening of song and dance
Buoyed by the reception in Italy, Briatore brought the concept to the Dubai venue when it reopened in October.
When The National visited earlier this month, the venue resembled more of a cabaret show, with lush velvet theatre curtains, dim romantic lighting and tables filled with couples and small groups of friends. The four-hour programme is split between nearly a dozen 10-minute performances, ranging from song covers and tango and salsa displays, to an eye-popping acrobatic performance by the duo Destiny.
The time in between is for indulging in a sophisticated sharing menu that fuses Italian with Asian influences.
"Everything from the show to the menu reflects Dubai because it is the centre of everything. You are six hours from Europe and close to Asia," Briatore says. "Everything is easy here, from the travel to the good weather."
'It's always about the people'
That said, Briatore is aware the city can attract unscrupulous operators. The reason many clubs don't last, generally, he says, is the relentless focus on the bottom line.
“At the end of the day you are dealing with people and everybody needs to be on the same page,” he says.
“I don’t believe in someone being a VIP. When you walk into my club, everyone is the same. The most important person in the club, for me, is the waiter. They bring the energy and set the tone of place and it is they who talk to the customers first. Running a club is like having a family, there needs to be respect with each other.”
It’s a responsibility Briatore takes even more seriously today, considering the emotional turmoil caused by Covid-19.
“We are creating a space for people to be happy,” he says. “People want to go out and see each other, so we want to do it in a safe way. My favourite part of my job is seeing people’s eyes light up when the show begins. There is a smile and that feeling of being connected and in the moment.”
Billionaire Dubai is located in the Taj Dubai, Business Bay. Doors open 9pm with shows and dinner beginning 10pm. Bookings can be made at billionairesociety.com
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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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Name: Yousef Al Bahar
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Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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