The Moroccan hammam room at The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal. Courtesy The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal
The Moroccan hammam room at The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal. Courtesy The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal

Surrendering to the opulence of the Oasis Ritual at the capital’s Ritz-Carlton ESPA



If there’s such a thing as a typical spa customer, rest assured that, on this occasion at least, it was not yours truly. Looking to soothe the twin pains of a first game of competitive cricket in about a decade and multiple ungraceful dismounts from a mechanical bull at a friend’s birthday party, it’s safe to assume none of the other customers at the Ritz-Carlton’s ESPA spa were in an identically tender pre-treatment position.

Fortunately, at two hours in length, there aren’t many more opulent options on ESPA’s menu to ease aches away than the signature Oasis Ritual. Booking an entire day at the 2,000-square-foot, stand-alone, beachfront facility is perhaps the only upgrade you could indulge in.

The dual-therapist treatment – swapping from male to female at the midpoint – was a well-being game of two halves. It began with a Moroccan-style hammam. In the North African nation, the hammam is predominantly an affordable, regular pursuit – and a highly social one at that – for the country’s male folk, but this was a more private experience, in ESPA’s specialised hammam room. Our chatty Romanian therapist helped to ease what could have been a vaguely awkward atmosphere by discussing, among other things, professional football players from his homeland – just the type of manly conversation that, we hope, bounces off the walls in traditional Moroccan hammams.

After a brief foot ritual of restorative bath oil and body-smoothing shower gel, I lay down on the octagonal, marble centrepiece. Unlike another five-star-hotel hammam we endured in Abu Dhabi, where the gallons of painfully hot water used made the whole shebang feel like some kind of medieval torture, ESPA was much lighter on the quantities of more-lukewarm liquid. And although the treatment wasn’t one you’d describe as “comfortable”, owing to a towel being the only barrier between your rib cage/back and the stone, added to the deliberately sandpaper-esque scrub, it hit the spot. And even several days later our skin was still silkily smooth to the touch.

A rubdown with a jasmine-infused Moroccan black soap, a marine-mud body mask with a caramel texture, a foam wash and an “awakening” shampoo were interspersed with two short spells in the steam room, followed by brief stints in the in-hammam shower cubicle (replete with shade-changing mood lighting that gave the rather disorientating sensation of enjoying a quick clean on a discotheque dance floor).

Phase one completed, we were whisked off to a second, somewhat drier treatment room by a diminutive Thai therapist. Appearances are almost always deceptive in such circumstances: what she lacked in size, she certainly made up for in strength during a warm-oil massage that occasionally had us wincing as elbows and fingers sought out the creakiest enclaves between ribs and shoulder blades. A test of a good massage is not to give any pre-pummelling advice on which areas require special attention; to our delight, our therapist zoned in on neck and shoulder stiffness within moments, without any directions. The concluding scalp massage, meanwhile, was firm and uncompromising, but, at the same time, very nearly sent us off into a woozy doze.

• A 120-minute Oasis Ritual at ESPA at Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal, costs Dh1,070, plus taxes. Call 02 818 8051 for bookings

aworkman@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.”

The Baghdad Clock

Shahad Al Rawi, Oneworld

Day 5, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance

Moment of the day When Dilruwan Perera dismissed Yasir Shah to end Pakistan’s limp resistance, the Sri Lankans charged around the field with the fevered delirium of a side not used to winning. Trouble was, they had not. The delivery was deemed a no ball. Sri Lanka had a nervy wait, but it was merely a stay of execution for the beleaguered hosts.

Stat of the day – 5 Pakistan have lost all 10 wickets on the fifth day of a Test five times since the start of 2016. It is an alarming departure for a side who had apparently erased regular collapses from their resume. “The only thing I can say, it’s not a mitigating excuse at all, but that’s a young batting line up, obviously trying to find their way,” said Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s coach.

The verdict Test matches in the UAE are known for speeding up on the last two days, but this was extreme. The first two innings of this Test took 11 sessions to complete. The remaining two were done in less than four. The nature of Pakistan’s capitulation at the end showed just how difficult the transition is going to be in the post Misbah-ul-Haq era.

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