A Russian oligarch's claim for $115 million in damages against his former wife, after a superyacht was impounded in Dubai as part of a costly divorce battle, has been dismissed by the emirate's highest court.
The 115-metre MV Luna has been held in Dubai since February 2018 while lawyers for oil and gas tycoon Farkhad Akhmedov fought a UK court order that transferred it to his former wife, Tatiana Akhmedova.
Mr Akhmedov and Straight Establishment - the current registered owner of the $450m vessel - initially brought the case against Ms Akhmedova in January 2020.
The Dubai Court of Cassation rejected claims the arrest had been unlawful and that there was no grounds for further claims for alleged damages.
Mr Akhmedov had hoped to recover "loss of opportunity and moral damages" on the basis that MV Luna could have been chartered out for the duration of its arrest.
The claim for lost hire fees ran contrary to Straight Establishment’s previous declarations that the vessel was not a commercial yacht and could not be used for financial gain, said Ms Akhmedova's legal team.
“This is the latest in a string of vexatious claims by Mr Akhmedov that have been thrown out by courts in Dubai,” said Alessandro Tricoli of Fichte & Co, representing Ms Akhmedova.
"The decision in Dubai is a major blow to Mr Akhmedov's attempts to evade the UK court judgment against him, and his efforts to reclaim the Luna from Ms Akhmedova appear increasingly bleak."
New York-based financiers, Burford Capital, provided Ms Akhmedova with funding for her legal case in exchange for a share of up to 30 per cent of any recovery from the $586m divorce case.
The Dubai court ordered Mr Akhmedov to pay expenses and costs to Ms Akhmedova.
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The court decision is binding and cannot be subject to further appeal.
The future of the yacht, however, remains uncertain after years of legal deadlock.
A spokesman for Mr Akhmedov told The National the decision was "irrelevant" as a previous ruling had ensured his ex-wife could not remove the luxury vessel from Dubai.
"These damages claims were filed by Mr Akhmedov and the trust which owns the yacht as a back-up to the main legal action in Dubai," the spokesman said.
"This was to prevent Tatiana and her backers, Burford Capital, taking ownership of Luna. This action was successfully concluded in August when the Court of Cassation ruled in favour of Mr Akhmedov, thus ensuring the yacht could never be seized from Dubai by his ex-wife.
"At that point the damages claim became irrelevant. Burford and Tatiana have not gained a penny from the rejection of damages claims. It is a pyrrhic victory."
The yacht remains moored in Port Rashid, subject to injunctions obtained in the Marshall Islands and England by Ms Akhmedova, which prevent the transfer of ownership of the vessel or its removal from Dubai.
Proceedings to determine the rightful ownership of the yacht are ongoing in the Marshall Islands.
The yacht, which has 50 crew and two helipads, was impounded in Dubai and put into dry dock more than two years ago for the duration of the ongoing litigation after London’s High Court ordered Mr Akhmedov to pay 40 per cent of his $1.4 billion fortune to her.
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Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
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Plan to boost public schools
A major shake-up of government-run schools was rolled out across the country in 2017. Known as the Emirati School Model, it placed more emphasis on maths and science while also adding practical skills to the curriculum.
It was accompanied by the promise of a Dh5 billion investment, over six years, to pay for state-of-the-art infrastructure improvements.
Aspects of the school model will be extended to international private schools, the education minister has previously suggested.
Recent developments have also included the introduction of moral education - which public and private schools both must teach - along with reform of the exams system and tougher teacher licensing requirements.
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Most wanted allegations
- Benjamin Macann, 32: involvement in cocaine smuggling gang.
- Jack Mayle, 30: sold drugs from a phone line called the Flavour Quest.
- Callum Halpin, 27: over the 2018 murder of a rival drug dealer.
- Asim Naveed, 29: accused of being the leader of a gang that imported cocaine.
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- Dean Garforth, 29: part of a crime gang that sold drugs and guns.
- Joshua Dillon Hendry, 30: accused of trafficking heroin and crack cocain.
- Mark Francis Roberts, 28: grievous bodily harm after a bungled attempt to steal a £60,000 watch.
- James ‘Jamie’ Stevenson, 56: for arson and over the seizure of a tonne of cocaine.
- Nana Oppong, 41: shot a man eight times in a suspected gangland reprisal attack.
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.”
