ABU DHABI // Own a Mercedes-Benz and want to really test it out? Ahmad bin Khadeya would be only too pleased to take you on – provided you have the right specifications.
Bin Khadeya, 22, recently broke the speed record of an exclusive UAE club by driving a quarter-mile in 10.5 seconds in a competition at Yas Drag Racing Centre.
“I was scared initially but then I calmed down,” he said. “A lot of people made me nervous by telling me it will get harder but I got over it.
“I was very happy. I was driving my uncle’s car and he gave me the confidence to drive it. I didn’t want to let him down.”
Bin Khadeya is a member of the Group 63 AMG, a club that consists of 1,016 owners of Mercedes AMG 63 series models.
He was clocked at 219kph in a Mercedes C Brabus Bullet.
“I was not fully prepared, honestly. I just changed the tyres to be fit for a drag race,” he said. “All my friends attended and it was a motive for me to try harder.
“Drag racing is a different experience to regular street driving, especially with the prizes we get in the end.”
The club was founded in Dubai in 2010 by Khalid Al Mulla, and two of his friends. Al Mulla said this competition, one of a series he has organised, was contested strongly.
“We are always surprised by the events. There is always something new,” he said. “It is interactive and many people love these kinds of events.
Ahmad Al Janahi, 21, driving a Mercedes-Benz C63, was surprised to have made the finals.
“I felt I was prepared but I wasn’t expecting to reach the finals. It’s great I did,” Al Janahi said. “I tried to win but it’s all about how far you want to go and how far you want to risk it.”
He said it had been an exhilarating experience and he and would “definitely do it again”.
“On a scale of one to 10, I would say this experience is an 11,” Al Janahi said. “I’ve seen videos on YouTube and I thought of participating. I wanted to be competitive.”
He prepared by heading to the circuit the day before the race to test his car and skills.
Al Janahi said the competition looked scary, as the other cars had been modified for drag racing.
“My car was street-driveable, unlike theirs, and I still got to the finals,” he said.
“The day of the event I was nervous, there were many cars and they looked aggressive – drag ready.
“The cars were fitted with rims and tyres and some of them had seats removed to reduce the weight of the car.”
Owners of more than 100 Mercedes-Benz cars, all in the AMG 63 series, gathered to watch the drag races, which were sponsored by Emirates Motor Company. The event was one of several for the year.
Group 63 members are mostly Emirati, with others from Yemen, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain. The group is planning a bigger event in January.
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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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