Munir Al Kaloti is an alchemist.
In his possession are rare tools with which he works his lucrative and ancient craft: Aqua Regia, the "royal water" that can dissolve pure gold; furnaces that glow amber and red at 1,100 degrees to melt crucibles of precious metal into a fiery liquid; supercharged electrolysis plates that attract particles of gold like a magnet. He has them all.
But, as is the case with all true alchemists, Mr Kaloti's fortune began as nothing more than a rag-tag collection of scrap metals that he wrought over half a century into what is today the biggest gold refinery, forge and mint house complex in the Middle East.
Forced from his home in Jerusalem in 1968 by the Arab-Israeli conflict, Mr Kaloti arrived in Abu Dhabi three years before the Federation was born.
"The first visa I got to come to Abu Dhabi came from the British Consulate in Amman, Jordan. There was nothing like the UAE at that stage. There was only the Abu Dhabi emirate, the Dubai emirate. You could not travel freely in those days between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, you needed a visa."
He arrived in the country with nothing but his education from the American University of Beirut and the discipline imparted to him over years as a high school student of Anglican missionaries at St George's school in Jerusalem.
"At that time I remember there was not one asphalted road in Abu Dhabi," he says. "Not one building over one floor. The buildings were mainly clay. It was the very, very beginning of the country, the very beginning."
He did not have to struggle to find shelter or sustenance though, as he remembers the people of Abu Dhabi, although poor, were very generous.
"When I got here the first thing I found were very nice people, very welcoming people, very poor people really. But very kind very welcoming," he says.
"They had nothing, there was no electricity connection at all. I stayed as a guest with some friends who had no electricity, only a generator for the lights in their simple house. But they put me up."
The big oil companies were just arriving in the UAE and with them came the construction crews, the pipeline layers, the derrick diggers, all of them leaving behind an unholy mess of scrap metal in the sand.
And it was in this industrial rubbish heap that Mr Kaloti - who today sits behind a large hardwood desk at the centre of a US$32 billion (Dh117.53bn) global gold empire - saw his fortune.
"I will be frank with you, I was collecting the dirt," he says with a chuckle of resignation. "Big companies, they have lots of scrap left over from their fields. A lot of cables, copper cables. A lot of batteries, a lot of metals. Copper, nickel, lead. Non-ferrous metals. These are very expensive items. So that was the start."
But soon his business outgrew Abu Dhabi and he packed up his trusty Land Rover for the move to Dubai.
Back in Jerusalem, Mr Kaloti's father had been in the food business, importing and exporting all over the region.
So once he arrived in Dubai, the young Mr Kaloti opened up a second line alongside his now growing scrap metals trade importing food for his father's outfit, which had landed a big contract supplying the Dubai defence force.
The shift into food took his life in yet another direction as Mr Kaloti soon came into close and regular contact with Sheikh Rashid, the Ruler of Dubai.
"I would go to Zabeel and see Sheikh Rashid. He used to sit outside his palace so that everybody who had a request or a problem could go in his turn. He would be there sitting and smoking his pipe, his very famous pipe, on the wooden seat and people who have businesses or who want things - Europeans, Arabs, everybody - would come. He met everybody."
Around the time of Ramadan each year Sheikh Rashid would buy huge quantities of meat for his people to provide for their Iftar meals and Eid celebrations. The people lining up in front of his palace would petition a certain quantity of livestock and the Sheikh would strike a bargain with Mr Kaloti to import it.
"They love goats here at that time of year because of the heat," Mr Kaloti says. "Lean meat you see, in the heat you cannot eat fat. In Europe or Alaska you eat fat to keep warm, but here they do not need it."
Sitting next to Sheikh Rashid would be an official, Mr Kaloti remembers. "At that time it was the president of Balidia, the municipality, his name was Khamal Hamza. He would say to me, OK, you are bringing the livestock."
And then the bargaining would begin.
"Sheikh Rashid would say: 'Hello, how are you?' to me and he used to bargain very hard with me. Whatever he needed I would supply. He would say he needed 20,000 or 30,000 head of goat."
Mr Kaloti would explain to Sheikh Rashid the cost of air freighting such a huge quantity of live goats into Dubai from Australia or Turkey or wherever he could find them and the negotiation would continue.
"They usually sell livestock by two, the jift we call it. Not one but two kids or lambs. 'How much this year for the jift?' he would say. Then he would always say: 'No, no, that's too much. You have to drop the price'. And you know you can't bargain too long. I give a little bit of a discount for him and then he calls the municipality manager and he says, OK, book 20,000 or 40,000 whatever it is and that's it, deal done."
Mr Kaloti swipes his palms together swiftly to signify the successful end of negotiations, a gesture he has surely performed more times than most.
There was no gold business to speak of in Dubai at that time. There were handfuls of Indian jewellers and traders making simple rings and other trinkets by hand in the dusty streets around what is now the gold souq, but the essential elements of a real gold trade - the assaying laboratory, the forge, the mint house and the modern jewellery shops you could trust did not exist.
"There were some products coming from here and there, Yemen mainly and Bahrain. But these people here were very much more interested in the pearl. Pearls were more important here than gold before we came here," Mr Kaloti says.
His son-in-law Monzer Medakka had just arrived in Dubai armed with a degree in jewellery making from Italy. He had served apprenticeships with some of the greatest goldsmiths and jewellers in Europe and was ready to start his own business.
"We moved to a small operation we called Kaloti jewellery with my son-in-law Monzer. He studied this in Italy, he came here young and he asked for my daughter and I wanted to take care of him. So we started this one window shop with four or five people to make some ornaments like rings and pendants. Very primitive things."
The business started with a single kilo of gold purchased from Tawfiq Abdullah, the founder of the region-wide jewellery chain, Damas. That kilo of gold cost Dh40,000 - today the same kilo would cost $60,000.
"Tawfiq is now buying hundreds of kilos from us every day," Mr Kaloti notes with pride.
At the same time he started a gold assaying business. "We were the first company in Dubai to be certified by the government to assay gold for people. If they want to go to court or disputes they would come for our assay.
From this small beginning the bullion business was born at a factory that still sits on its original site in Sharjah.
"Dubai was much more open than the surrounding countries. It is a free country, no taxes, big logistics operations, flights going in and out from all over the world. People carrying scrap gold and gold from mines in Africa and Asia were coming in more and more and they are asking who can handle this, who can buy this?
"So we said: 'Why not? This is our line, so why don't we see what we can do'."
Before long they were inundated with business.
"People would come per day, two times," Mr Kaloti remembers with a hint of incredulity. "They would buy their gold and come do the deal and fly back to buy more and come back again in the same day."
Today the company has offices in Hong Kong, Istanbul and Singapore. It has struck a deal to build a refinery and a mint house in Surinam to service Latin America and has plans to open similar operations in eastern Europe.
Mr Kaloti's expansion plans are ambitious indeed.
The rising price of gold - in the past five years it has almost doubled from $890 to about $1,600 - has driven the rapid growth of Mr Kaloti's gold refinery so that they are producing annually about $32bn of gold bars and bullion for an ever-expanding client list.
"We have reached our capacity here in Sharjah. We cannot expand any more," Mr Kaloti says.
"For this reason we are moving to this new site with the DMCC which will be the biggest in the region and among the top 10 biggest in the world."
The factory in Sharjah produces a maximum of 300 tonnes of gold a year. The new facility will produce as much as four times that amount.
"We would be happy to get it to 1,000 tonnes annual production in the first couple of years. After that 1,450," Mr Kaloti says with no noticeable degree of excitement.
He is talking about tens of billions of dollars worth of gold but might as well be talking about scrap metal, or goats. It is all the same to him.
As if to underscore the point, the walls of his office are hung with pictures taken at every stage of his career, from his graduation at which he delivered the valedictorian speech, to a recent snap with the president of Surinam.
In one he appears as a young man with a bristling moustache next to half-a-dozen or so cubes of compressed scrap aluminium. In another he pours a crucible of molten lead into a mould. He is outside in what looks like a junkyard.
From the pride with which he shows off these scenes in his plush, modern office one can tell Mr Kaloti, despite the intervening decades, is still the same smiling young man in the junkyard, brimming with a confidence that pours from the pictures like the molten gold he makes.
"I told you - I was collecting the dirt, packing it in drums, selling it, shipping it."
Only in the UAE does the scrap man end up with a factory filled with gold.
jdoran@thenational.ae
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
Alita: Battle Angel
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Stars: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Keean Johnson
Four stars
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
AT%20A%20GLANCE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EWindfall%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EAn%20%E2%80%9Cenergy%20profits%20levy%E2%80%9D%20to%20raise%20around%20%C2%A35bn%20in%20a%20year.%20The%20temporary%20one-off%20tax%20will%20hit%20oil%20and%20gas%20firms%20by%2025%20per%20cent%20on%20extraordinary%20profits.%20An%2080%20per%20cent%20investment%20allowance%20should%20calm%20Conservative%20nerves%20that%20the%20move%20will%20dent%20North%20Sea%20firms%E2%80%99%20investment%20to%20save%20them%2091p%20for%20every%20%C2%A31%20they%20spend.%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EA%20universal%20grant%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EEnergy%20bills%20discount%2C%20which%20was%20effectively%20a%20%C2%A3200%20loan%2C%20has%20doubled%20to%20a%20%C2%A3400%20discount%20on%20bills%20for%20all%20households%20from%20October%20that%20will%20not%20need%20to%20be%20paid%20back.%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETargeted%20measures%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EMore%20than%20eight%20million%20of%20the%20lowest%20income%20households%20will%20receive%20a%20%C2%A3650%20one-off%20payment.%20It%20will%20apply%20to%20households%20on%20Universal%20Credit%2C%20Tax%20Credits%2C%20Pension%20Credit%20and%20legacy%20benefits.%0D%3Cbr%3ESeparate%20one-off%20payments%20of%20%C2%A3300%20will%20go%20to%20pensioners%20and%20%C2%A3150%20for%20those%20receiving%20disability%20benefits.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
Film: Raid
Dir: Rajkumar Gupta
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Ileana D'cruz and Saurabh Shukla
Verdict: Three stars
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDirect%20Debit%20System%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Sept%202017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20with%20a%20subsidiary%20in%20the%20UK%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Undisclosed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Elaine%20Jones%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%208%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Getting there
The flights
Flydubai operates up to seven flights a week to Helsinki. Return fares to Helsinki from Dubai start from Dh1,545 in Economy and Dh7,560 in Business Class.
The stay
Golden Crown Igloos in Levi offer stays from Dh1,215 per person per night for a superior igloo; www.leviniglut.net
Panorama Hotel in Levi is conveniently located at the top of Levi fell, a short walk from the gondola. Stays start from Dh292 per night based on two people sharing; www. golevi.fi/en/accommodation/hotel-levi-panorama
Arctic Treehouse Hotel in Rovaniemi offers stays from Dh1,379 per night based on two people sharing; www.arctictreehousehotel.com
RACECARD
6pm Emaar Dubai Sprint – Conditions (TB) $60,000 (Turf) 1,200m
6.35pm Graduate Stakes – Conditions (TB) $100,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
7.10pm Al Khail Trophy – Listed (TB) $100,000 (T) 2,810m
7.45pm UAE 1000 Guineas – Listed (TB) $150,000 (D) 1,600m
8.20pm Zabeel Turf – Listed (TB) $100,000 (T) 2,000m
8.55pm Downtown Dubai Cup – Rated Conditions (TB) $80,000 (D) 1,400m
9.30pm Zabeel Mile – Group 2 (TB) $180,000 (T) 1,600m
10.05pm Dubai Sprint – Listed (TB) $100,000 (T) 1,200m
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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About Proto21
Date started: May 2018
Founder: Pir Arkam
Based: Dubai
Sector: Additive manufacturing (aka, 3D printing)
Staff: 18
Funding: Invested, supported and partnered by Joseph Group
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.”
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
%20Ramez%20Gab%20Min%20El%20Akher
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Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The years Ramadan fell in May
The five pillars of Islam
UAE Falcons
Carly Lewis (captain), Emily Fensome, Kelly Loy, Isabel Affley, Jessica Cronin, Jemma Eley, Jenna Guy, Kate Lewis, Megan Polley, Charlie Preston, Becki Quigley and Sophie Siffre. Deb Jones and Lucia Sdao – coach and assistant coach.
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: ten-speed
Power: 420bhp
Torque: 624Nm
Price: Dh325,125
On sale: Now
Pros%20and%20cons%20of%20BNPL
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The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
Company%20Profile
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57%20Seconds
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Company profile
Name: Dukkantek
Started: January 2021
Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani
Based: UAE
Number of employees: 140
Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service)
Investment: $5.2 million
Funding stage: Seed round
Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office
