ABU DHABI // A specialist branch of a prominent diabetes centre will open in Zayed Sports City to meet an increased demand for services as awareness of the disease improves.
The new branch of Imperial College London Diabetes Centre will have 70 staff once fully operational and will include services for pregnancy and care before and after bariatric – obesity – operations.
It will be located at its sister hospital, Healthpoint.
Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi government-owned investment company, made the announcement about the expansion on Sunday during an event to mark a decade since the diabetes centre opened in the emirate.
The specialist branch will help provide continual care for patients undergoing bariatric surgery at Healthpoint, and services such as cardiology, by referral. The move will help to address complications related to diabetes that demand more continuous care and easier referral, Mubadala said.
The centre also has branches in Abu Dhabi city on Al Khaleej Al Arabi Street, beside Zayed Military Hospital, and in Al Ain beside Tawam Hospital.
Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, deputy group chief executive as well as emerging sectors chief executive at Mubadala, said the goal is to help realise the emirate’s goal of creating a world-class healthcare sector.
“The new [Zayed Sports City] branch is the latest demonstration of our commitment to delivering cutting-edge treatment options for our patients,” he said.
Maha Barakat, director general of the Health Authority Abu Dhabi, said Haad and the diabetes centre are working together to confront the disease and create a healthier Abu Dhabi, “from treatment to public health campaigns to research efforts and diabetes education in a holistic, well-rounded way”.
“The new branch is an important addition to the community’s efforts to tackle diabetes, a reflection of how far we have come in tackling diabetes, and we look forward to working with everyone there,” she said.
The centre has had “an enormous impact in a relatively short period of time”, said Suhail Al Ansari, chairman of the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre and executive director of Mubadala Healthcare.
The new branch is “a true reflection of how much we strive for a sustainable network of specialist healthcare facilities”, he said.
The centre has worked with more than a million people through treatment, prevention, research, education and awareness programmes, Mubadala said.
Nearly one in five people – 19.3 per cent – of the UAE population between ages 20 and 79 has Type 2 diabetes, according to figures from the International Diabetes Federation last year, detailed on the centre’s website.
Last year, more than a million people in the UAE were living with diabetes, making it 13th worldwide in terms of prevalence adjusted for age.
The numbers are expected to rise because of rapid economic growth, sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy diets, according to the centre.
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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.”
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