There were a number of tailbacks in Sharjah this morning. Sammy Dallal / The National
There were a number of tailbacks in Sharjah this morning. Sammy Dallal / The National
There were a number of tailbacks in Sharjah this morning. Sammy Dallal / The National
There were a number of tailbacks in Sharjah this morning. Sammy Dallal / The National

UAE traffic: tailbacks in Sharjah


Gillian Duncan
  • English
  • Arabic

There were tailbacks in many of the usual problem spots in Sharjah this morning.

The Sharjah ring road was slow in sections, including past Sharjah Industrial Area Eight, as well as where it links to Beirut Street. The problems continued on to Beirut Street and up to Dubai Cattle Market.

Third Industrial Street was also slow approaching Beirut Street as was the E311 Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, starting before Al Thiqah Club for the Handicapped, past the National Paints factory and running right up to Dubai International Airport.

There were also tailbacks on the S116 Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Street, starting in Sharjah Industrial Area Four up to Sharjah graveyard. It was also slow on sections of D97 Amman Street, as well as D95 Baghdad Street approaching the junction with Amman Street.

And there were the usual delays on the E11 Al Itihad Street, from the Adnoc garage up to Dubai International Airport.

In Dubai there were tailbacks on sections of D61 Hessa Street, where it joins D54 Sheikh bin Hamdan Al Nahyan Street and further up past the Enoc garage.

Traffic was moving well in Abu Dhabi.

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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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