It is 11.35pm and I am incandescent with rage. I am trying to sleep, but there is an anti-lullaby of banging, beeping, clattering and clanking playing directly outside my window. Industrial-strength spotlights pierce through the curtains, lighting up my bedroom as if it were the middle of the day. Even the cat is struggling to get any shut-eye.
Living next to a construction site is a very UAE experience. In more established cities around the world, you are unlikely to find yourself in this infuriating predicament. In Dubai, it is almost par for the course. I had somehow managed to escape this fate for more than a decade and then, last year, diggers rolled into the open plot directly opposite my house (which begins mere metres from where my garden ends) and never left.
Saturday morning lie-ins are now a thing of the past and the dogs are constantly spooked by the noise. Construction of the second storey of the building is now in full swing, so the hordes of men toiling day and night can see directly into my house. Everything I own is covered in a permanent layer of dust.
Every now and again, I storm over to the makeshift site office, which is a 30-second walk from my front door, and demand to have an audience with the site agent. I acknowledge that he probably also has better places to be in the dead of the night, but I present him with my catalogue of grievances all the same.
I beg him to turn off the spotlights, tell him that I have just worked a 10-hour day, commuted to and from Abu Dhabi, and would love to be able to sit on my sofa and actually be able to hear my television over the din. I tell him that I go to sleep to the soundtrack of cranes and trucks, and wake up to the same.
He smiles and nods and we both know I am wasting my time. But it makes me feel ever so slightly better. Because the worst thing about living next to a construction site is how powerless you feel. For months, if not years, on end, your life is massively inconvenienced – and there is not a thing you can do about it.
Let’s ignore the fact that, as far as I understood it, the stretch of land opposite my house was supposed to be turned into a park. I live in a low-rise, strictly residential community and yet, somehow, the school that has decided to plonk itself directly across from the end of my garden has managed to get a licence that allows construction work to go on until midnight.
My neighbours have just had a baby, and there is a young toddler two doors down, but there is scant concern for their, or anyone else’s, sleeping patterns or peace of mind.
There is a certain irony in the fact that we are all trying to flee and will move away as soon as our contracts allow it. And so, the Arcadia Secondary School, which should be trying to position itself as the linchpin of our quiet neighbourhood, is alienating everyone in its catchment area before it even opens.
Such blatant disregard for others is unbecoming of an institution tasked with enlightening our youth. Surely there’s a lesson in there somewhere?
Crime%20Wave
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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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