DUBAI // A Pakistani man has become the 187th winner of Dubai Duty Free’s US $1 million (Dh3.67 million) prize draw.
Adnan Malik is the eighth Pakistani to have won the prize. Dubai Duty Free said he did not believe the news at first but was “very excited”.
Mr Malik does not live in Dubai, but buys a raffle ticket every time he visits the city.
The draw was held on Tuesday at Dubai International Airport as part of the Millennium Millionaire Promotion. As part of its Finest Surprise Draw, the winners of two exclusive vehicles were also announced.
Najeeb Almana, a Saudi national, won an Audi Q7 3.0T.
“As a regular visitor to Dubai I love shopping in Dubai Duty Free and buying a ticket in the Finest Surprise promotion became a habit. I’ve been waiting for a long time before I finally got lucky and now I look forward to visiting Dubai one more time to receive my precious prize,” Mr Almana said.
Jasim Uddin, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi national who lives in Dubai won a Ducati Monster 821 dark motorbike.
The winning tickets were drawn by George Horan, president of Dubai Duty Free, along with executives Salah Tahlak and Ramesh Cidambi, in front of a crowd of passengers and staff at the airport. Entrants have a one in 5,000 chance of winning a prize in the Millennium Millionaire promotion, said Dubai Duty Free.
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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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