The Abu Dhabi developer Miral Asset Management has announced that it plans to open a Warner Bros theme park on Yas Island in 2018.
The government-owned company said the new indoor theme park would cost US$1 billion to build and would be 100 per cent owned by Miral.
Construction work on the theme park and a Warner Bros-themed hotel, in the centre of Yas Island, started last year after Miral signed a main construction contract for the project with Belgian contractor Six Construct in May.
Miral said that all of the construction contracts had been awarded and work was more than 30 per cent complete.
It said that the new park would create more than 1,000 new jobs in Abu Dhabi and would increase visitor numbers to Yas Island from 25 million last year to 30 million in 2018.
Miral declined to say how many rides would be included in the new park, but previous reports have put the number at 19. Miral also declined to say how big the park would be.
The new park will be close to the Ferrari World theme park, which was developed by Aldar and opened in 2010. It was sold to the Abu Dhabi government for Dh10.9bn less than three months later and is currently operated by Miral.
Miral, a limited liability company backed by the Abu Dhabi government, also owns other key assets developed by Aldar including Yas Waterworld, the 227-berth Yas Marina and the Cipriani restaurant.
Plans to build a Warner Bros theme park have been around since 2007, when the American media company first signed a deal with Abu Dhabi’s largest listed developer, Aldar.
But the plans were hit by the global financial crisis, during which Aldar sold off many of its assets to the Abu Dhabi government.
Miral said that Aldar would have no role in the creation of the new Warner Bros park. It would be 100 per cent owned by Miral, which has bought the right to use the Warner Bros brand intellectual property for the park.
Miral's chairman, Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, is also chief executive of Aldar Properties while the company's chief executive, Mohamed Al Zaabi, has been a board member at Aldar Academies since September 2013.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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Company profile
Company: Eighty6
Date started: October 2021
Founders: Abdul Kader Saadi and Anwar Nusseibeh
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Hospitality
Size: 25 employees
Funding stage: Pre-series A
Investment: $1 million
Investors: Seed funding, angel investors
About Housecall
Date started: July 2020
Founders: Omar and Humaid Alzaabi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech
# of staff: 10
Funding to date: Self-funded
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
UAE central contracts
Full time contracts
Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid
Part time contracts
Aryan Lakra, Ansh Tandon, Karthik Meiyappan, Rahul Bhatia, Alishan Sharafu, CP Rizwaan, Basil Hameed, Matiullah, Fahad Nawaz, Sanchit Sharma
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
Company%20profile
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Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
The bio
Favourite vegetable: Broccoli
Favourite food: Seafood
Favourite thing to cook: Duck l'orange
Favourite book: Give and Take by Adam Grant, one of his professors at University of Pennsylvania
Favourite place to travel: Home in Kuwait.
Favourite place in the UAE: Al Qudra lakes
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The Orwell Prize for Political Writing
Twelve books were longlisted for The Orwell Prize for Political Writing. The non-fiction works cover various themes from education, gender bias, and the environment to surveillance and political power. Some of the books that made it to the non-fiction longlist include:
- Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War by Tim Bouverie
- Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by Kate Clanchy
- Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
- Follow Me, Akhi: The Online World of British Muslims by Hussein Kesvani
- Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS by Azadeh Moaveni
