DUBAI // The body of Mubarak Meshaal Al Mubarak, the 19-year-old Kuwaiti who died after being beaten by his "childhood" friends on Monday, will be taken back to his home for burial.
Three uncles and a cousin of Mubarak, a first-year student at the University of Sharjah (UOS), have travelled to Dubai to take his body back to his family in Kuwait.
Sharjah Police said two teenagers, YS and HM, aged between 18 and and 19, have been arrested and charged with assaulting Mubarak over "three days." The case has been referred to Sharjah Public Prosecution.
"We are grateful to the judges and the authorities that they are releasing the corpse," said Saleh Al-Yaseen, director of cultural office at the Kuwaiti consulate in Dubai.
"There should not be any delay in burying the body as per Islamic traditions."
Mubarak, who had arrived in the UAE to study only two weeks ago, was taken to University Hospital Sharjah on Sunday by YS, who was also his roommate. However, he succumbed to his injuries later that evening. Police cited "personal and financial disputes" for the assault.
Mr Al Yaseen said Mubarak's death had sent shockwaves through the Kuwaiti community in the UAE and devastated Mubarak's family.
"This is a shock to everyone. The uncles said the three kids were together since childhood. Mubarak's aunt taught them in school. They were very close like family.
"The worst thing is for a small quarrel to come between students and to lead to someone's death. This is completely not acceptable in our society."
Mr Al-Yaseen said although YS was part of the Kuwati royal family, the "UAE laws would take its own course."
According to the consulate, Mubarak and YS, had driven to the UAE two weeks ago. Mubarak had enrolled at the College of Communications in UOS. HM had been studying in UOS for a year.
Mr Al-Yaseen said: "All the family wants now is to give him a proper burial and get justice and find the reasons for his death."
Kuwaiti students are required to notify their mission upon arriving in the UAE but Mubarak had not informed the consulate. There are about a 1,000 Kuwaitis pursuing higher studies in eight universities in the UAE.
According to Sharjah Police, the Criminal Investigation Department had received a report on Monday night from the officer on duty at the hospital that a Kuwaiti student was admitted to the emergency department.
"He was in a critical state but died later," said a media statement. "Clinical examination revealed he had various injuries all over his body."
YS, who brought Mubarak to the hospital, initially said he had fainted and fallen in a coffee shop in the Muweilah area of Sharjah.
But when officers asked him about Mubarak's injuries, he confessed that he and HM had beaten him intermittently during three days in their shared apartment in the Abu Daneq neighbourhood.
The undersecretary of Kuwait's Foreign Ministry Khaled Al Jarallah told Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai that the authorities are confident the UAE's police "are capable of getting to the bottom of this case. We have confidence in their professionalism and credibility and there is no need to send a police team [from Kuwait]."
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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.”