An Al Fursan pilot adds red to the other UAE colours. Delores Johnson / The National
An Al Fursan pilot adds red to the other UAE colours. Delores Johnson / The National

Sky is no limit to Abu Dhabi’s party



ABU DHABI // The capital was alive with the colours of the UAE flag on Tuesday – and the sky was no limit.

All eyes on the Corniche were aimed upwards as Al Fursan, the Air Force’s aerobatics team, performed a show of precision flying.

It ended as the sky was daubed with red, black, white and green smoke from the planes.

Tourists, residents and nationals poured into the streets to show their love for the country.

There were celebrations taking place at the nearby Heritage Village, where many attended to revel in the festivities and planned to participate in a traditional dance.

Saud Salem, 25, came from Al Ain for the event.

He said he loved National Day for the feeling of unity.

“It’s so beautiful for my country,” said Mr Salem, who works for the police. “This is a special day for anyone living in the UAE. You see people getting together.”

But the Corniche was the centre of the celebrations as hundreds of cars packed out roads, while bystanders cheered from the promenade.

Young Emiratis and some expatriates played loud music from their cars and honked their horns.

It was a field day for many blue-collar workers who sold boxes of confetti and spray cans of silly string.

Back at the village, bands played traditional Emirati music for dancers, as souqs and exhibits dedicated to handicrafts, archaeology and other features operated.

Hoda Al Janabi, 32, from Abu Dhabi, was enjoying the celebrations with the youngest of her five children, her daughters aged 8 months and 3.

“I’m very happy on this National Day,” Ms Al Janabi said.

Ahmed Magdy, 25, came with his friend Mohammed Arafat, 28. Both are engineers from Egypt.

“National Day here is a very happy day for the Emirati people and the non-Emiratis,” said Mr Arafat.

“The Emirates is a very good country. They love their country very much. We are also enjoying it. You can feel relaxed.”

Mohammed Siddique, 30, a driver from Pakistan, came dressed in a UAE scarf and hat, saying he loved the people in the country he has called home for 10 years.

Dr Ibrahim Al Hammadi, manager of the Heritage Village, said two new museums – an Islamic museum and a historical archives exhibit for National Day – would open to the public on Sunday.

Outside the village, motorists paraded their cars down the Breakwater playing music and jutting out of their sunroofs or windows waving flags.

Nearby in the Marina, a group had gathered on jet skis to tow others on hydraulic jetpacks while waving the UAE flag.

Mohammed Mohtasib, 33, a Palestinian, came with a friend from Jordan and watched the jetpacks while others stopped to take pictures.

“National Day is a nice day for Emiratis and for us,” said Mr Mohtasib, an engineer who has lived in the UAE for seven years.

“In our country we don’t have something like this. We are happy when we see something like this because it’s not available for us.”

The UAE stood out among other Arab countries for its safety and its accomplishments over the past 43 years, he said.

“We hope to some day have the same for Palestine,” Mr Mohtasib said.

Lorne Ventress, 62, from Canada, was walking along the Corniche and said that three weeks after arriving in Abu Dhabi for work, he was impressed by the love residents showed for the country.

“I am so pleased with the patriotism here in this country,” he said.

“In Canada, we love our country, but we don’t show it like this.”

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Paatal Lok season two

Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy 

Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

Rating: 4.5/5

MATCH INFO

West Ham United 2 (Antonio 73', Ogbonna 90 5')

Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Son 36', Moura 42', Kane 49')

Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.

Based: Riyadh

Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany

Founded: September, 2020

Number of employees: 70

Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions

Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds  

Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices

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.”

THE SPECS

Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine 

Power: 420kW

Torque: 780Nm

Transmission: 8-speed automatic

Price: From Dh1,350,000

On sale: Available for preorder now

Brief scoreline:

Crystal Palace 2

Milivojevic 76' (pen), Van Aanholt 88'

Huddersfield Town 0

The specs: 2018 Maxus T60

Price, base / as tested: Dh48,000

Engine: 2.4-litre four-cylinder

Power: 136hp @ 1,600rpm

Torque: 360Nm @ 1,600 rpm

Transmission: Five-speed manual

Fuel consumption, combined: 9.1L / 100km

Company%20Profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3EFounder%3A%20Hani%20Abu%20Ghazaleh%3Cbr%3EBased%3A%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20with%20an%20office%20in%20Montreal%3Cbr%3EFounded%3A%202018%3Cbr%3ESector%3A%20Virtual%20Reality%3Cbr%3EInvestment%20raised%3A%20%241.2%20million%2C%20and%20nearing%20close%20of%20%245%20million%20new%20funding%20round%3Cbr%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%2012%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Company profile

Date started: Founded in May 2017 and operational since April 2018

Founders: co-founder and chief executive, Doaa Aref; Dr Rasha Rady, co-founder and chief operating officer.

Based: Cairo, Egypt

Sector: Health-tech

Size: 22 employees

Funding: Seed funding 

Investors: Flat6labs, 500 Falcons, three angel investors

Director: Laxman Utekar

Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna

Rating: 1/5

Emergency

Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

Rating: 2/5

Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Kill%20Bill%20Volume%201
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Quentin%20Tarantino%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Uma%20Thurman%2C%20David%20Carradine%20and%20Michael%20Madsen%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%204.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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