Aabar raises $800m in funds

Aabar Investments, which owns stakes in the car maker Daimler and the space tourism venture Virgin Galactic, has obtained US$800 million (Dh2.93 billion) of new debt. The new club loan with local and international lenders will be used for "general corporate purposes" and will be paid back in three years, the company said yesterday. Aabar had Dh15bn of borrowings as of December last year, with $1.62bn maturing this month, according to Reuters data.

Last month, it said it would issue convertible bonds worth Dh7.346bn to the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), which holds a 71 per cent stake in Aabar. Aabar has built up its investments in recent years, buying land in Abu Dhabi, financing industrial projects in North Africa and taking stakes in high-profile companies such as the Brawn GP Formula One racing team. The company reported a Dh1.57bn profit for the first quarter on gains from derivatives and currency transactions.

"Aabar remains confident of its strategy to focus on its chosen investments sectors and to continue to focus on creating value for all its shareholders," said Mohammed Hamad al Mehairi, an Aabar board member, at the time. "It also aims to build partnerships and create synergies for the long term among the various members of the Aabar group." Aabar also restated its earnings for the first quarter of last year after "management identified errors in the classification of an investment, arising from the misinterpretation of fundamental facts", statements from the company show. This resulted in its Dh177m profit now being booked as a Dh1.22bn loss.

Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, known as Taqa, said yesterday it had completed the refinancing of a C$1.32bn (Dh4.56bn) revolving credit facility. Its new facility has a three-year term and is funded by a syndicate of eight Canadian banks, Taqa said in a statement. The company will initially withdraw C$875m from the facility. Taqa has said it was planning to sell non-core assets from its Canadian subsidiary, Taqa North, and use the cash for other parts of its regional business.

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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.”

How to wear a kandura

Dos

Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester

Don’ts

Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying

A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language

2018: Formal work begins
November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
November 2024: All 127 volumes completed

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions