When Manal Ghanem got off the bus at her usual stop in Beirut on September 20, she made sure to save her ticket.
As well as getting her to her destination, it promised a reward.
It offered the 32-year-old educator a discount at one of the capital’s popular restaurants, the Cafe Em Nazih, as part of an initiative to encourage more people to use the public transport network.
Started by Riders’ Rights in September to help allay the country’s fuel crisis, “Save and Ride” allows bus passengers to receive a discount at several businesses that have joined the project.
Riders’ Rights has long been a champion of public transportation, which the civil society organisation believes can help achieve “mobility justice".
“Transportation is a right,” Chadi Faraj, co-founder of the bus rewards scheme, told The National. “Our priority is to ensure that everyone has the same access to it.”
In 2015, Mr Faraj helped create the Bus Map Project, which charts bus routes across Lebanon to organise and simplify transportation.
Six years later, commuters are picking up the map “like it was just created”, he said.
“There has always been a stigma around shared transportation in Lebanon," Mr Faraj said. “And it’s our mission to set that right.”
The majority of the population in Lebanon has always relied on private cars. Many households, even modest ones, own multiple vehicles.
But Lebanon's unprecedented economic downfall has made fuel increasingly unaffordable and scarce.
“This crisis can be an opportunity for Lebanon to shift from cars to shared transport and walking,” Mr Faraj said. “It’s important that we take this chance.”
Apart from promoting shared transportation, which is increasingly becoming a popular topic worldwide in light of climate change, "Save and Ride" aims to support local businesses that have been affected by the nation's financial meltdown.
One of Beirut’s most prized bookshops, conveniently located next to a bus stop, is a partner of the initiative.
Halabi Bookshop is a family business that first opened as a grocery store in 1958, and was later transformed into a home for vintage and early edition books in several languages during the early 1990s.
More than 30 years old, Halabi Bookshop is a Beirut staple and a “bucket-list” destination for many, Lana Halabi said.
“We used to have people visit us from all over the country, but business is just not the same any more," the 33-year-old co-founder of the book shop told The National.
During the country’s lockdown, imposed in early 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, visitor numbers to the bookstore dropped. Loyal readers, though, would still order books to be delivered to their homes.
Now the fuel crisis has made it increasingly difficult for people to move around, or to splurge on delivery fees.
“We’ve got to a point where delivery prices are almost as expensive as the books, often more," Ms Halabi said.
The partnership with "Save and Ride" is still in its early stages, but it was formed with the aim of promoting shared transportation and driving customers back to the store.
“It’s too soon to tell how this will go, because the initiative is still new and it’s been challenging,” Mr Faraj said. “But if there’s a time to try to make a change, it’s now.”
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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.”
