The welcome
A doorman wearing a bowler hat, named Guillermo, greets me with a big grin at the entrance and remembers me by name for the rest of my stay. I'm a little underwhelmed by the small lobby, which feels a bit like an office tower's, decorated with Canadian artwork and bronze maple leaves inlaid in the cream marble floors. But I'm only there for a moment before I'm shown up to the Club Level lounge, where I'm easily checked in and briefed by Jordan, one of the concierge team.
The neighbourhood
You can't be more central than the hotel's spot on Wellington Street, between the tram line on Spadina Avenue and the metro line on University Avenue. The glass tower stands tall in the middle of the entertainment district, a walk from CN Tower and the Rogers Centre sports stadium, and close to the Toronto International Film Festival's shiny new headquarters, the Bell Lightbox, which, with the new Ritz-Carlton, made that strip the new place to be for festivalgoers last September.
The room
My lake-view deluxe room is simply decorated in various tones of beige, which is just fine because nothing should take away from the most magnificent view of the CN Tower, which fills the centre of my floor-to-ceiling window, and Lake Ontario beyond it. The bed has the dreamy comfort I've come to expect from the Ritz-Carlton, with Italian Frette sheets. In the spacious marble bathroom, the floors are heated (a bonus to help you through a Canadian winter) and there's a TV embedded behind the mirror. It's stocked with all the usuals, plus a Bose sound system and Nespresso maker.
The service
Smoothly efficient and friendly, everyone from the doorman to the Club lounge staff stops to make conversation in a way that feels caring but not intrusive.
The food
The hotel's signature restaurant, TOCA by Tom Brodi, serves inventive Canadian dishes with local ingredients sourced from coast to coast, such as Nova Scotia lobster and glazed British Columbia black cod. But they had me at the Avocado Frites with Tarragon Remoulade (C$9; Dh32): the avocado was perfectly fresh and firm despite being deep-fried in batter. After polishing off my very tender Wellington County Petit Mignon, aged 36 days (C$32; Dh475), I must find room for the highlight - a visit to the Cheese Cave, where the restaurant's "affineur," a trained cheese sommelier, helps select a tray of cheeses from her selection of more than 200.
The scene
After its opening earlier last year, the Ritz-Carlton became the new nucleus for celebrities at the film festival, including George Clooney and Ryan Gosling. It's understandably less flashy when I visit: the weekend crowd consists of well-dressed couples on vacation, Bay Street financiers and the odd artiste at the bar in the lobby.
Loved
It was the thoughtful extras that made a difference: takeaway cups provided in the room for your coffee; a minibar stocked with handwarmers available for purchase along with gourmet Canadian snacks like Thomas Haas chocolates; and a nightly relaxation tip from Yogagurl, the Ritz-Carlton Spa's in-house yoga studio. Not to mention the affineur.
Hated
There is nothing wrong with the decor, but there isn't anything spectacularly right about it either, although I did like TOCA's wood-planked elegance.
The verdict
A solid bet for those who want to be surrounded with no-nonsense luxury in the heart of the city with a smashing view and one of the city's hotspot restaurants.
The bottom line
A double room costs from C$390 (Dh1,400) per night, including taxes. The Ritz-Carlton, 181 Wellington Street West, Toronto (www.ritzcarlton.com/toronto; 001 416 585 2500).
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.”
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
