Dubai chef and restaurateur Reif Othman and his family are the latest residents to receive the UAE golden visa, for his service to the country's food industry.
Under the golden visa programme launched in 2019, recipients receive a renewable 10-year visa for the UAE.
Othman called the recognition “an absolute honour”. “Both myself and my family have called Dubai our home for the last 12 years, and along with our business expansion plans, we are committed to the UAE long-term, so the golden visa recognition is the icing on the cake,” he said.
“I have always been a workaholic who lives and breathes cooking. To champion a cuisine, one has to innovate constantly, something that requires dedication and hard work.”
Known for his unconventional approach to Far Eastern cuisine, Othman first arrived in Dubai as the executive chef at the award-winning restaurant Zuma and helmed the kitchens at high-end restaurants Play and Billionaire Mansion before opening his own restaurant Reif Japanese Kushiyaki in 2019.
He's also behind a number of pop-up concepts including Kushi by Reif at the Depachika Food Hall at Nakheel Mall, Palm Jumeirah, and Reif at Time Out Market in Souk Al Bahar.
This year, Othman will expand his Reif Japanese Kushiyaki beyond the UAE, with franchises set to open in Cairo and Riyadh.
To celebrate the golden visa recognition, Othman’s restaurant at Dubai’s Dar Wasl mall is offering all diners a free golden dessert from Sunday to Saturday, June 20 to 26.
The complimentary dessert, a green tea creme brulee with gingered mango and creamy chocolate topped with edible gold leaf, will be available for all lunch and dinner guests.
Othman and his wife Jasmine, who heads the front-of-house operations at the restaurant, join another UAE culinary star, chef Izu Ani, who was awarded the golden visa in April.
Ani, who began his career in London and then lived in France for six years, relocated to Dubai in 2010 to join the award-winning La Petite Maison (now LPM Dubai). He then moved to La Serre before launching YSeventy7, his own creative consulting and management agency, specialising in the food and beverage industry.
Through the agency, he's launched many popular dining concepts in the region, including Carine, The Lighthouse, Izu Brasserie & Bakery and Gaia.
"To me, Dubai is not a transient place, it is somewhere that we can call home, rather than just pass through. It is a destination that allows us to grow," the Nigerian-born, London-raised chef said when the recognition was announced.
“When we invest in ourselves, in our passions and projects, we plant the seeds of development. Dubai enables us to see the world with the eyes of a child, to explore and build our dreams into our realities, and for that I will always be grateful.”
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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India squad for third Test against Sri Lanka
Virat Kohli (capt), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Vijay Shankar
India squad for ODI series against Sri Lanka
Rohit Sharma (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul
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