ABU DHABI // Two major development projects will bring thousands of homes and jobs to an underdeveloped area on the outskirts of the capital.
The Dh4 billion Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City is 90 per cent complete and will open soon, while construction is under way on a Dh2.5bn Emirati housing neighbourhood near Abu Dhabi International Airport. The first of the homes will be ready by 2019.
The 732-bed hospital in Al Mafraq area is billed as one of the most important healthcare developments in the region, with four towers and an array of buildings stretching across 300,000 square metres.
Developer Musanada said the hospital has 36 VIP units, 424 beds for post-surgery inpatients, 120 beds for mother and childcare, a 32-bed intensive care unit, a 30-bed ICU for cardiology and a 20-bed burns unit, among others.
The hospital, on which work began in 2011, means patients and emergency services will not have to travel into the city centre.
During the media tour yesterday, Ali Al Haj Al Mehairbi, Musanada’s executive director of building management, said “the pioneering project reflects the Abu Dhabi government’s concern with people’s health”.
Along with the advanced burns treatment centre, there will be special units to treat tumours, kidney problems, urology, chest, rheumatism, bone, blood, cardiovascular and endocrine diseases.
Students from UAE University’s engineering department toured the new district yesterday.
Rashid Al Kaabi, 21, a student of mechanical engineering, said the hospital would ensure easier access to health care.
“People won’t have to rush to the city all the time for specialised treatment,” he said.
Hussain Al Hosani, 21, said the developers had shown what could be done with advanced technology.
“The work at the hospital is excellent, it spurs you on to learn more and work hard,” he said.
Work on the housing district, which is being built by the same developer, is under way and will eventually provide homes for 22,000 Emiratis.
The neighbourhood will provide sustainable infrastructure and the “best international standards of community living”.
Suwaidan Al Dhaheri, acting chief executive of Musanada, said there were 2,790 residential plots, 36 mosques, 43 parks and 15 schools.
Mr Al Dhaheri said the project’s preliminary works consisted of land treatment, main roads, a drinking water system, rainwater drainage network, irrigation, firefighting, power cables and LPG networks to homes.
“The project was designed in view of future population growth in Madinat Zayed, on the outskirts of the city,” he said.
A tram facility to connect residents is a future goal, to be completed by about 2030.
anwar@thenational.ae
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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.”
