Raha Moharrak, the first woman from Saudi Arabia to climb Mount Everest, talks to reporters in Kathmandu. 'It was very personal thing. I didn't do it to cause a movement,' she says.
Raha Moharrak, the first woman from Saudi Arabia to climb Mount Everest, talks to reporters in Kathmandu. 'It was very personal thing. I didn't do it to cause a movement,' she says.
Raha Moharrak, the first woman from Saudi Arabia to climb Mount Everest, talks to reporters in Kathmandu. 'It was very personal thing. I didn't do it to cause a movement,' she says.
Raha Moharrak, the first woman from Saudi Arabia to climb Mount Everest, talks to reporters in Kathmandu. 'It was very personal thing. I didn't do it to cause a movement,' she says.

'I didn't do it to cause a movement,' says Saudi woman who conquered Everest

Raha Moharrak, the first Saudi woman to climb Everest, says she is happy to change opinions and that her next goal is to climb the highest peaks in all seven continents.

Associated Press

May 22, 2013

  • English
  • Arabic

KATHMANDU // The first woman from Saudi Arabia to scale Mount Everest said she doesn't intend to inspire a movement, but would be happy to change people's opinions of Saudi women and Saudi women's opinions of themselves.
Raha Moharrak, told reporters in Kathmandu after returning from the mountain that her next goal is to climb the highest peaks in all seven continents. She said she has already scaled five of them.
Ms Moharrak, 27, was among hundreds of climbers who reached Everest's 8,850-metre summit in recent days because of favourable weather conditions on the mountain.
"It was very personal thing. I didn't do it to cause a movement, did not do it because of anything, but If I can change people's opinion or the world's opinion on Saudi women and if I can change Saudi women's opinion about themselves I would be really happy," she said on Tuesday.
Women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive and cannot travel or attend school without the permission of a male guardian.
Last year, two Saudi female athletes made an unprecedented appearance at the Olympic Games in London.
Ms Moharrak, a graduate of the American University of Sharjah, said she didn't have any problems during the climb. She was among the first batch of climbers to head to the summit and there were fewer people on the narrow trail on the day she and her teammates reached the summit.
"I am very lucky that I adapted to the altitude well but it was really hard for me to get used to the cold, I come from Saudi Arabia," she said.
She said she began climbing by scaling Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa nearly two years ago and set her sights on Everest "simply because someone said I couldn't do it and I wanted to prove to myself."
"It wasn't a perfect day on the summit, it was windy but it was beautiful," she said. "I was standing on the summit of the world with my two feet and I could not believe it."

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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