DUBAI // A trip to the beach ended in tragedy for a group of seven friends after one died and another remains unconscious in hospital.
Haja Mohammed Ismailuddin, 25, from the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, drowned off Umm Suqeim 1 Beach on Friday at approximately 4.30pm.
The former Indian bus driver, who was employed by a local paper mill, died after battling strong currents along with two other friends, who were hospitalised.
Of the seven friends who went to the beach, only three went swimming, while the others remained on the shore.
"The weather was great and we had been swimming for about 20 minutes when suddenly the currents became strong and the waves started crashing against us," said Rafi Jhani, 27, one of the friends who was hospitalised.
"I was swimming a little away from Ismail when I heard him shouting for help," he added.
"I tried to swim to him but the waves kept pushing me away. The effort drained me of all strength and I had to seek help, too."
An unidentified swimmer pulled Mr Jhani out of the water. Friends then alerted a rescue team, who pulled the third man, Mohammed Imtiaz, 26, out of the water, along with the body of Ismailuddin.
Mr Imtiaz, who works at a logistics firm, has yet to regain consciousness and is being treated at Rashid Hospital.
Mr Jhani, who works at the same company, was discharged on Saturday morning.
He said he was still shaken by the event and could not believe his friend was dead.
"No one told me that he had died until I was discharged from the hospital," Mr Jhani said.
At 1.45pm the same afternoon, the body of a British tourist was pulled from the sea by a Dubai resident, Jonny Singh.
The man, identified as Martin Hayle, 50, died en route to the hospital, according to Dubai Police. "I was about 30 metres out in the water and the conditions were rough," said Mr Singh.
"I spotted a body floating, so I swam out to check on the man. His face was pale and he was not moving. After I towed him to shore, a rescue officer immediately tried to resuscitate him."
In a third incident on the same day, another man drowned two hours later at the same beach.
Police have identified the victim as a British expatriate, PF, 52.
The British Embassy confirmed that two of its citizens drowned in Dubai on Friday, but declined to comment further.
Five more swimmers were pulled from the water by Dubai Rescue Police that day.
An Indian man and an Iranian man were rescued in separate operations on Jumeirah Beach Residence Open Beach, and two Sudanese men, aged 18 and 21, were rescued on Umm Suqeim 1 Beach.
In a seventh operation, a 28-year-old woman from New Zealand was rescued after her kayak overturned off Umm Suqeim 2 Beach. She suffered minor injuries.
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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.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million