A prominent UAE entrepreneur and champion of education, PA Ibrahim Haji, has died in India.
Mr Haji, who was 78, hailed from the town of Pallikere in Kerala and had lived in the Emirates for more than 50 years, heading businesses and schools in India and the Middle East.
In 1967, Mr Haji started his remarkable career in the UAE with a job as salesman in the spare parts division of Austin (British Motors Corporation).
He joined Galadari Automobiles (Mazda Distributors) as spare parts manager in 1972.
He was later appointed as manager of Al Hashar Automobiles' spare parts division and by 1974 had saved enough to start a small business of garments and cosmetics in Dubai.
In 1976, he launched a joint venture, Century Trading, which is a part of Al Shamali Group of Companies.
He was one of the key investors of Malabar Gold and Diamonds and the managing director of the Al Shamali Group in Dubai.
In 1999, Mr Haji founded the Pace Education Group, under which he established many engineering colleges in India and schools in the Middle East. The group runs the Gulf Asian English School in Sharjah.
Tributes pour in
Syed Khalil, former group executive director of Ilyas and Mustafa Galadari Group and former vice chairman of the Jashanmal Group of Companies, paid tribute to his "soft-spoken" friend.
He said the UAE community would miss his presence.
Mr Khalil said he knew Mr Haji for the past 30 years and together they carried out social welfare projects.
“He was one of the finest men and did so much work to promote education in India and the Gulf.
"He was very soft-spoken and I never saw him losing his temper.
"When schools opened, I saw the way he greeted teachers. They would say he is a very good owner.
"I met him at a social function and we jointly founded an India-Arab association."
Mr Khalil said he and Mr Haji worked day and night to form the association in 1981, a time when Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had made a two-day visit to the UAE.
He said Mr Haji contributed greatly to the Indian community in the UAE.
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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.
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“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.
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“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.
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Tips for used car buyers
- Choose cars with GCC specifications
- Get a service history for cars less than five years old
- Don’t go cheap on the inspection
- Check for oil leaks
- Do a Google search on the standard problems for your car model
- Do your due diligence. Get a transfer of ownership done at an official RTA centre
- Check the vehicle’s condition. You don’t want to buy a car that’s a good deal but ends up costing you Dh10,000 in repairs every month
- Validate warranty and service contracts with the relevant agency and and make sure they are valid when ownership is transferred
- If you are planning to sell the car soon, buy one with a good resale value. The two most popular cars in the UAE are black or white in colour and other colours are harder to sell
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