One of the five-bedroom villas at Aldar's Al Falah project in 2009, for distribution to Emiratis. The company said it had developed or delivered to 6,744 homes for Emiratis. Ryan Carter / The National
One of the five-bedroom villas at Aldar's Al Falah project in 2009, for distribution to Emiratis. The company said it had developed or delivered to 6,744 homes for Emiratis. Ryan Carter / The National

Aldar announces plans to build 2,300 homes worth Dh5.7bn for Emiratis



Aldar Properties will build 2,300 more homes for Emiratis in schemes worth Dh5.7 billion to be completed over the next two years, the company said yesterday.

The projects, funded by the Government of Abu Dhabi, are scheduled to be completed in 2016 and include 1,020 villas on Yas Island, 996 villas in Al Falah and 275 villas at Al Ghuraibah in Al Ain, the Abu Dhabi-listed company said.

“We have a proven track record of developing high-quality large-scale housing projects for UAE nationals. It is a is great honour to be building a further 2,300 units on behalf of the Government of Abu Dhabi for the people of the UAE,” said Fahed Al Ketbi, the chief operations officer at Aldar.

The Yas Island scheme, located along the western shore of the island with an area of about 220 hectares, includes schools, mosques and leisure and retail areas.

Aldar is in the process of handing over 1,887 national housing units to the Abu Dhabi Government, it said.

“Aldar, in our view, will finalise the delivery process of all NHP units in H1,” Arqaam Capital said last month.

In total, Aldar said it had developed or delivered to 6,744 homes for Emiratis.

This month, it said it had revised its predictions for the amount of cost-saving synergies it would be able to make after its merger with its rival, Sorouh, to between Dh145m and Dh150m a year from between Dh90m and Dh100m.

Last month, Aldar said it planned to develop 1,000 new apartments across Abu Dhabi from Al Bateen to Al Raha Beach. It also reported full-year profits of Dh2.25 billion, 67 per cent higher than a year earlier, before the merger.

Aldar shares closed a touch lower in Abu Dhabi on Monday at Dh3.14 each.

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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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Another way to earn air miles

In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.

An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.

“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.

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