SHARJAH // Shoppers can now pay their traffic fines while they browse the stores with the opening of a new police station at Sahara Mall.
The station, which will also offer immigration and other police services, is the first of its kind for the emirate, said Brig Abdullah Mubarak Al Dukhan, the deputy director general of Sharjah Police.
"The experience of this station could encourage us to open similar ones in other shopping centres," he said. "At present we have a study of two other similar stations, one in Al Dhaid and another in the eastern region but we need to first see how this one works."
The station is open to the shoppers as well as residents of the Al Nahda and Al Khan neighbourhoods and nearby industrial areas.
Engineer Omar Abdullah Al Suwaidi, the director of police stations in Sharjah, said police certificates, such as ones for good conduct, were available at the mall station, which also has a traffic and licensing section where people can pay their fines and process licences.
"We shall only be considering new vehicles for one to three years registration and renewal as they don't require testing and we don't have testing services here," he said.
Civil Defence will also host fire safety programmes for the shoppers at the station.
Muhammad Shahwani, who was shopping at Sahara Mall, said it was always good to have easy access to police services, particularly at shopping centres.
"Going to a police station for a minor matter can be daunting but if the police are in a mall where we always go, one can easily pass by and get the service from there," he said.
"I already have my driving licence and do not have a new car to register but at least I can apply for the good conduct certificate."
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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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