Dubai International was named Sleeping in Airports’ Best Airport in the Middle East for the second year running. Kamran Jebreili / AP Photo
Dubai International was named Sleeping in Airports’ Best Airport in the Middle East for the second year running. Kamran Jebreili / AP Photo

Dubai airport passenger traffic up 9.9% in September



Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport rose 9.9 per cent last month, after runway repairs lasting nearly three months were finally finished.

Dubai Airports reported that passenger traffic reached 5.9 million in September, compared with 5.4m during the same month last year. Passenger volume during the nine-month period also rose at 6.2 per cent to 52.4m from 49.3m in the same period last year.

“The airport’s performance in the first three quarters has been very satisfying and we anticipate brisk growth will continue as we head down the home stretch to year-end,” said Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports. “Clearly, more and more people are choosing Dubai as their preferred hub not only for the extensive network of 260 destinations that we connect around the world, but also for the wide array of options we offer our customers for dining, shopping and resting.”

Only one runway was in operation during the 80-day runway refurbishment, reducing the airport’s capacity by 26 per cent.

Eastern Europe was the fastest growing market in September, followed by North America and South America. The Indian subcontinent meanwhile was the leader in terms of growth in overall passenger numbers, followed by Western Europe and Asia.

Cargo movement also rose last month, with 202,415 tonnes passing through the facility compared with 196,823 tonnes during the same month last year. The shift of freighter flights to Dubai World Central meanwhile resulted in a 1.7 per cent fall in year-to-date cargo traffic to 1.763m tonnes from 1.793m tonnes last year.

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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.”