• Officials take a tour of the new facility in Al Qassim region. All pictures courtesy Salam Veterinary and Camel Hospital
    Officials take a tour of the new facility in Al Qassim region. All pictures courtesy Salam Veterinary and Camel Hospital
  • The new hospital has room for 4,000 camels.
    The new hospital has room for 4,000 camels.
  • The site is spread across 70,000 square metres.
    The site is spread across 70,000 square metres.
  • Officials take a tour of the new facility.
    Officials take a tour of the new facility.
  • The site is spread across 70,000 square metres.
    The site is spread across 70,000 square metres.
  • The new facility is located close to Buraydah, which is believed to be the world’s largest camel market.
    The new facility is located close to Buraydah, which is believed to be the world’s largest camel market.

Saudi Arabia opens world’s largest camel hospital

The hospital can house 4000 racing camels

Taylor Heyman
Taylor Heyman
London

September 07, 2020

  • English
  • Arabic

Saudi Arabia’s Al Qassim region has opened the world’s largest camel hospital and research facility.

The Salam Veterinary Camel Hospital, which stretches over 70,000 square metres and cost over 100 million Saudi Riyals to build, was opened by Dr Faisal bin Mishaal bin Saud bin Abdulaziz, governor of the region, on Sunday evening.

The check-up facilities can handle 144 camels alone and the research centre is working on mitigating disease and other risks to the animals. The stable sheds are capable of holding up to 400 racing camels at one time.

A spokesperson for the facility said it will employ between 200 and 300 people across six sections, surgery, medical treatment, camel accommodation, laboratories for testing and research and a calf unit.

After cutting tape to open the new facility, the governor toured the hospital's central laboratories and other facilities before giving a speech to mark the occasion.

The new facility is located close to Buraydah, the site of what is considered to be the world’s largest camel market, which runs six days a week across two square miles.

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The CEO of Salam Veterinary Group, Rashid bin Assaf Al Ajmi thanked Dr Faisal for his support of the project and the people of the region.

"The hospital contains a number of different departments, research on camels, operations, x-ray, births, viruses and certain types of illnesses. They also have laboratories that specialise in different blood types and nutrition for camels," Mr Al Ajmi told Al Ekhbaryia news service.

"This is the first in hospital in the world to have these departments and special machinery that would treat the camels."

The hospital's central laboratory contains over 60 pieces of equipment capable of undertaking over 160 types of analyses.

Part of the aims of the huge hospital are to promote and improve breeding, including a specialist centre for embryonic transfer using world-first technology for camels. The practice has been performed for the first time in Saudi Arabia by the organisation.

This season the group conducted over 500 embryo transfers, resulting in 350 pregnant camels. Next season they hope to transfer 2500 embryos, overseen by veterinarian Taher Kamal.

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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203S%20Money%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202018%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20London%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ivan%20Zhiznevsky%2C%20Eugene%20Dugaev%20and%20Andrei%20Dikouchine%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%245.6%20million%20raised%20in%20total%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

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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