Above, an illustration of the 14-storey CMC Tower on King Fahd Road in Riyadh. Courtesy Cayan Group
Above, an illustration of the 14-storey CMC Tower on King Fahd Road in Riyadh. Courtesy Cayan Group

Property

Cayan starts work on Riyadh tower

Cayan and the Saudi financial services company Mefic Capital will house their headquarters in the building once the project completes.

Michael Fahy
Michael Fahy

July 05, 2015

Cayan Group, the developer of the twisted Cayan Tower in Dubai Marina, has broken ground on a 100 million Saudi riyal (Dh97.9m) office tower project in Riyadh.

The 14-storey CMC Tower on King Fahd Road in the Saudi capital is being developed in partnership with Saudi financial services company Mefic Capital. Both firms will house their headquarters in the building once the project completes, which is anticipated to be in two years’ time.

Alongside the office space, it will also house a new gym and an advertising screen at the top of the building.

The CMC Tower was one of three new projects worth a combined Dh3.1 billion that Cayan Group announced this year at a launch event in Dubai during which the French stuntman Alain Robert, whose nickname is Spiderman, climbed the Cayan Tower.

“CMC is strategically located on the King Fahd Road in Riyadh and is a perfect model of a multi-use integrated commercial complex, which includes luxury offices and distinctive facilities such as a screen and a high-tech fitness centre, among others,” said Ahmed Alhatti, Cayan Group’s chairman.

A contract to oversee construction was awarded to the Jordanian firm Consolidated Consultants this year. A number of contractors have been shortlisted to build it.

A spokesman said that “the selected contractor will be appointed soon”.

More than 1 million square metres of office space is set to be delivered in Riyadh over the next three years – a 41 per cent increase on the current stock of 2.4 million sq metres. However, delays to construction projects at the new King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) are helping to underpin rents in the short term, according to the property consultancy JLL.

Average rents in the first quarter were flat at 1,060 riyals per sq metre, and the amount of vacant office space in the city declined to 16 per cent of the total, from 19 per cent in the first quarter of last year.

KAFD, which also overlooks King Fahd Road, is a new, $11.6bn financial hub that will have more than 112 buildings, according to a recent Arab News report. The project value had previously been estimated at $7.8bn.

With so much new stock due to come on to the market, JLL said that “a number of private developers have delayed or reduced the size of their projects”.

mfahy@thenational.ae

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A meeting of young minds

The 3,494 entries for the 2019 Sharjah Children Biennial come from:

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2,000 – China

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1 – Kuwait

1 – Australia
 

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.”