Lea-Ann Randall, a business development manager in Dubai, pictured with her 2005 pearl white Cadillac Escalade. Ms Randall bought the SUV 18 months ago from a friend.
Lea-Ann Randall, a business development manager in Dubai, pictured with her 2005 pearl white Cadillac Escalade. Ms Randall bought the SUV 18 months ago from a friend.

Motoring

Forget about fuel economy

It may be big, thirsty and not that new, but a Cadillac is this Dubai resident's dream car.

Gordon Torbet

December 05, 2009

A glance at South African, Lea-Ann Randall in her Carlos Santana high heels and elegant dress, and you might assume that she'd drive a classic roadster or modern sports convertible - but definitely not her beloved two-ton 2005 pearl white Cadillac Escalade. "It's always been my dream car", she says. "I'd see it on the road and it just looked so smooth and elegant. I always thought that I could never afford it. Then 18 months ago she heard that a friend was selling one. "I couldn't believe it. It was still under warranty with a service agreement in place. That was peace of mind for me. As soon as I saw the features I said 'I want this car'."

Lea-Ann, the business development manager for the Dnata Call Centre, had thought about buying a BMW Z4 until a colleague sent her a photograph of a Land Cruiser sitting on top of a Jaguar convertible after a crash near her home in Al Barsha. That sealed the deal and without hesitation she sold her Volvo S40 and plumped for the Caddy, and she couldn't be happier with her brutish SUV. "In Dubai terms it's old, but it handles like a dream", she adds. "It has a beautiful interior, all very clean and well-maintained."

Even though the Volvo, which she bought when she came to the UAE 10 years ago, offered her safety and good road-holding, Lea-Ann feels far more secure in her Escalade, if only because the SUV garners more respect on the road. She also experienced the other side of the coin when she was driving a small car on Sheikh Zayed Road recently. "I saw a Land Cruiser in the rear-view mirror and thought, 'That's what I must look like coming up behind somebody'. So that's why they move without me flashing."

But Lea-Ann's Caddy ownership hasn't been without its servicing hitches. "The problem is that the dealers are under-resourced so the car always takes a good few days before you get it back. But anyway, GM Arabia are fantastic. They gave me an extended warranty of 20,000km as compensation." Lea-Ann first got under the bonnet as a child back in Durban. "When I was growing up my father only drove Mercedes-Benz. If I said to him 'what's wrong with your car, Dad?' He'd say 'Get under it.' And I'd have to."

This love of cars has also given Lea-Ann a great respect for driving skills. "I've learnt to think for everybody else on the road. You can watch a car in front of you and have an idea what the driver's going to do, even if they don't indicate." This degree of caution she believes was borne out of her first days of living in Sharjah when she first arrived in the UAE. "That teaches you how to drive, believe me. Even now when I go back to Sharjah in the Escalade, I get nervous."

Although Lea-Ann signed up for the EDI Advanced Driving course, she still finds the lure of the open road and the grunt of the Caddy's 380Nm 6.0-litre V8 hard to resist. A bit of a speed freak, Lea-Ann doesn't see why she can't enjoy the adrenaline buzz and still be a 'lady'. "People find it strange: I'm so feminine and girlie," she smiles. "I like nice smelling things, chocolates and flowers, and I love pretty things. But at the other extreme, if someone says to me 'we're going to Umm al Qaiwain to jump out of a plane', I say 'Can I come?'"

She also recently drove the Cadillac CTS: "That goes up to 270kph. I even got a speeding fine, but you can't drive a car like that and not put the pedal to the metal", she says animatedly. But the Escalade isn't perfect. "I don't like using an automatic because I feel like I'm not driving," - even though the auto box has cruise control which Lea-Ann insists is more for avoiding speeding fines than being lazy.

Then there are the squeaking brakes: "You buy an Escalade for the luxury image. Then you pull up at a hotel and everybody thinks 'where's that bus?!'" Not to mention the fuel economy: "This is the only country that I could afford to drive a car like this." So what could possibly replace Lea-Ann's Cadillac? "My next big car will have to be the Hummer H2 SUT", she smiles. "Of course I can't afford it, and I have no idea what I'd put in the back but, then again, if I was buying a car for practicality I wouldn't be driving the Escalade, now would I?"

motoring@thenational.ae

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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