A car registration plate bearing just the number one fetched $4.9 million at auction in Sharjah.
Emirati Arif Al Zarouni was the winning bidder the on plate number. His bid was 18 times the reserve price but is not the highest sum that has been paid for a collector’s registration plate in the UAE.
In 2008, $14.2m was paid at auction for the number one plate of the Abu Dhabi emirate.
Sixty sought-after plates were up for sale at Saturday’s auction, held by Emirates Auction in collaboration with Sharjah Police Headquarters.
The most popular numbers were 12, 22, 50, 100, 333, 777, 1000, 2016, 2020 and 99999.
Number 12 was sold at Dh2.07m, while 22 fetched Dh2.08m. The auction made a total of $13.6m.
The number of registered bidders was 1,340, which is a record in the UAE.
business@thenational.ae
Follow The National's Business section on Twitter
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How to invest in gold
Investors can tap into the gold price by purchasing physical jewellery, coins and even gold bars, but these need to be stored safely and possibly insured.
A cheaper and more straightforward way to benefit from gold price growth is to buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Most advisers suggest sticking to “physical” ETFs. These hold actual gold bullion, bars and coins in a vault on investors’ behalf. Others do not hold gold but use derivatives to track the price instead, adding an extra layer of risk. The two biggest physical gold ETFs are SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust.
Another way to invest in gold’s success is to buy gold mining stocks, but Mr Gravier says this brings added risks and can be more volatile. “They have a serious downside potential should the price consolidate.”
Mr Kyprianou says gold and gold miners are two different asset classes. “One is a commodity and the other is a company stock, which means they behave differently.”
Mining companies are a business, susceptible to other market forces, such as worker availability, health and safety, strikes, debt levels, and so on. “These have nothing to do with gold at all. It means that some companies will survive, others won’t.”
By contrast, when gold is mined, it just sits in a vault. “It doesn’t even rust, which means it retains its value,” Mr Kyprianou says.
You may already have exposure to gold miners in your portfolio, say, through an international ETF or actively managed mutual fund.
You could spread this risk with an actively managed fund that invests in a spread of gold miners, with the best known being BlackRock Gold & General. It is up an incredible 55 per cent over the past year, and 240 per cent over five years. As always, past performance is no guide to the future.
