UAE President Sheikh Khalifa, who also heads Abu Dhabi's Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs, appointed a new board of directors to govern the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
The new board will be chaired by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and will include the company's group chief executive Dr Sultan Al Jaber, who has additionally been appointed managing director of Adnoc.
Dr Al Jaber, who is also the Minister for Industry and Advanced Technology, is also part of an executive committee of Adnoc's board which includes energy minister Suhail Al Mazrouei, Mubadala Investment Company chief executive Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chairman of Abu Dhabi's Department of Finance Jassem Al Zaabi and Minister of State, Ahmed Al Sayegh. The executive committee will be chaired by Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed, who is a member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office.
Adnoc's new board of directors includes Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed, Dr Al Jaber, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Ahmed Mubarak Al Mazrouei, Jassem Mohammed Al Zaabi, Suhail Al Mazrouei, Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh and Awaidha Murshed Al Marar.
The new board of directors takes over from the Supreme Petroleum Council, which previously governed Adnoc.
The council ratifies Adnoc's annual five-year spending plan, discoveries of new resources and allocation of concessions to international energy companies.
The SPC was replaced in December by the Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs, with Sheikh Khalifa as the chairman and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed as its vice-chair.
The constitution of Adnoc's first board marks a significant milestone in the group's evolution from a national oil firm to an integrated energy company with a growing international reach.
The new council was established to support Abu Dhabi's competitiveness and its economic and financial sustainability.
It will set financial and economic policy and will oversee the approval of strategies for a number of state-owned entities including Adnoc, Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and holding company ADQ.
The council has oversight on the Department of Finance but it will operate with autonomy on a day-to-day basis.
The UAE, Opec's third-largest producer, accounts for nearly 4.2 per cent of global output of oil. Most of the production comes from fields owned and operated by Adnoc in Abu Dhabi. The national oil company has streamlined its operations under Dr Al Jaber, who was appointed to his existing position in 2016.
Under his leadership, Adnoc invited partnerships from international investors into its upstream concessions and also opened up opportunities across its midstream and downstream assets to foreign capital.
Last year, the company forged a number of agreements with global asset managers across its value chain, attracting $16.8 billion in foreign direct investment into the UAE.
The Abu Dhabi firm also plans to spend $122bn over the next five years, of which $43.5bn will be directed towards the local economy.
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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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Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
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