Adam Neumann
WeWork never figured out how to make money. Adam Neumann sure did.
The office-leasing business declared bankruptcy on November 6, two years after finally going public minus its co-founder.
It has $19 billion of liabilities and $15 billion of assets. Longtime investors, including SoftBank Group and the Vision Fund, will add to the enormous losses they’ve already taken on the venture.
“It has been challenging for me to watch from the sidelines as WeWork has failed to take advantage of a product that is more relevant today than ever before,” Mr Neumann, 44, said in a statement at the time.
But a part of Mr Neumann might be thankful he was forced out in 2019 following the company’s disastrous first attempt at an initial public offering.
While battering his reputation, the exit left him with plenty of liquidity and he’s still worth $1.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
WeWork offices – in pictures
To be sure, WeWork’s failure hurt Mr Neumann’s wealth. When it went public in a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in 2021, Mr Neumann had a fortune of $2.3 billion, according to the index, with nearly one third in WeWork shares. They’ve since fallen more than 99 per cent.
But the deal also revealed how he managed to extract huge amounts of cash from WeWork in better times.
The former chief executive’s name was mentioned 197 times in a merger filing alongside eye-watering payouts, including a $185 million non-compete agreement, $106 million settlement payment and $578 million received for shares sold by Mr Neumann’s We Holdings to SoftBank.
These days, Mr Neumann is busy with a new start-up, Flow, which received a $350 million investment from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz at a $1 billion valuation in August 2022 before even beginning operations.
Flow will run multifamily residential properties that aim to foster a feeling of ownership and community.
At least some of the residential properties were already owned by Mr Neumann. Because his own investment in the company couldn’t be determined, Flow hasn’t been factored into Mr Neumann’s fortune, meaning he could be even wealthier than Bloomberg’s figure.
Not all of his investments outside of WeWork have been going so well. His family office fell behind on interest payments on a $31 million mortgage tied to a San Jose office building in California, according to an October mortgage filing.
Mr Neumann famously invested in office buildings, some of which were rented back to WeWork, one of the conflicts of interest that sunk the first IPO.
Leon Cooperman
Billionaire and former hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman has taken a late stake in Manchester United, the football club that’s nearing the end of a year-long bidding war.
Mr Cooperman reported a position of just under 1 million shares currently valued at $16.8 million, according to a recent filing.
With a net worth of $2.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Mr Cooperman is the founder of New York-based Omega Advisors who converted his hedge fund firm into a family office in 2018.
Last month, a Qatari group led by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani withdrew its offer to buy Manchester United, paving the way for British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe to eventually gain control of the famous football club.
Funds have been betting on the outcome of the Manchester United sale process, which was officially kicked off by the Glazer family a year ago.
At times, the bidding war was closer to a frenzied Premier League deadline day or NFL draft than a billion-dollar deal and has caused the club’s share price – listed in New York – to be highly volatile.
So far this year, the stock has fallen 19.02 per cent.
Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reduced the number of stocks in its portfolio in the third quarter, exiting stakes in General Motors and Activision Blizzard while trimming bets on companies including Hewlett Packard.
The conglomerate’s retreat from Activision completes Mr Buffett’s arbitrage play amid the video-game maker’s prolonged effort to merge with Microsoft, which ran into antitrust scrutiny before the deal was completed in October.
Altogether, Berkshire exited stakes in seven companies, not including the restructuring of its investment in Liberty Media and related entities. The value of its disclosed investments decreased 10 per cent from the previous quarter to $312.8 billion.
The conglomerate said it had omitted some data from the filing that was reported confidentially to regulators, and it’s unclear whether the information withheld related to a new or existing position.
The Securities and Exchange Commission sometimes allows companies to withhold information from the public to limit copycat investing while a firm is building or cutting a position.
Berkshire has been a net seller of equities throughout 2023, pocketing about $23.6 billion from stock sales after purchases in the first nine months of this year.
Those equity sales have contributed to a high-class problem for the conglomerate: More money than it can easily put to work.
Much of the hoard has ended up in short-dated Treasuries, helping Berkshire rack up a record $157 billion in cash.
Stanley Druckenmiller
Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller’s family office led investment firms for the world’s rich in trimming artificial intelligence bets in the last quarter, pocketing gains from one of this year’s hottest trends.
Mr Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office cut its Nvidia stake in the quarter ended September 30, according to its 13F filing, the first time this year the New York-based firm disclosed a drop in its holdings of the major beneficiary of increased AI interest.
George Soros’s family office and a division of multifamily office Stonehage Fleming also offloaded the stock in the period. Nvidia’s shares have surged almost 240 per cent this year, making it the S&P 500 index’s top performer.
Nvidia has become the poster child for AI computing as data-centre operators stock up on the company’s processors to meet skyrocketing demand for chatbots and other tools, helping to make the California-based company the first chipmaker to be worth $1 trillion.
Mr Druckenmiller, 70, sold about 75,000 Nvidia shares in the third quarter worth as much as $37.2 million, based on its share price in the period.
Nvidia remains the biggest holding by market value in Mr Druckenmiller’s family office at $380.5 million as of September 30, with South Korea e-commerce giant Coupang and Microsoft among its other major bets.
Soros Fund Management, meanwhile, exited Nvidia in the third quarter, selling stock worth as much as $4.9 million.
Mr Druckenmiller and Mr Soros, 93, have net worths of $9.9 billion and $7.2 billion, respectively, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
What vitamins do we know are beneficial for living in the UAE
Vitamin D: Highly relevant in the UAE due to limited sun exposure; supports bone health, immunity and mood.
Vitamin B12: Important for nerve health and energy production, especially for vegetarians, vegans and individuals with absorption issues.
Iron: Useful only when deficiency or anaemia is confirmed; helps reduce fatigue and support immunity.
Omega-3 (EPA/DHA): Supports heart health and reduces inflammation, especially for those who consume little fish.
UAE v Ireland
1st ODI, UAE win by 6 wickets
2nd ODI, January 12
3rd ODI, January 14
4th ODI, January 16
The low down on MPS
What is myofascial pain syndrome?
Myofascial pain syndrome refers to pain and inflammation in the body’s soft tissue. MPS is a chronic condition that affects the fascia (connective tissue that covers the muscles, which develops knots, also known as trigger points).
What are trigger points?
Trigger points are irritable knots in the soft tissue that covers muscle tissue. Through injury or overuse, muscle fibres contract as a reactive and protective measure, creating tension in the form of hard and, palpable nodules. Overuse and sustained posture are the main culprits in developing trigger points.
What is myofascial or trigger-point release?
Releasing these nodules requires a hands-on technique that involves applying gentle sustained pressure to release muscular shortness and tightness. This eliminates restrictions in connective tissue in orderto restore motion and alleviate pain. Therapy balls have proven effective at causing enough commotion in the tissue, prompting the release of these hard knots.
Top tips
Create and maintain a strong bond between yourself and your child, through sensitivity, responsiveness, touch, talk and play. “The bond you have with your kids is the blueprint for the relationships they will have later on in life,” says Dr Sarah Rasmi, a psychologist.
Set a good example. Practise what you preach, so if you want to raise kind children, they need to see you being kind and hear you explaining to them what kindness is. So, “narrate your behaviour”.
Praise the positive rather than focusing on the negative. Catch them when they’re being good and acknowledge it.
Show empathy towards your child’s needs as well as your own. Take care of yourself so that you can be calm, loving and respectful, rather than angry and frustrated.
Be open to communication, goal-setting and problem-solving, says Dr Thoraiya Kanafani. “It is important to recognise that there is a fine line between positive parenting and becoming parents who overanalyse their children and provide more emotional context than what is in the child’s emotional development to understand.”
The bio
Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.
Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.
Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.
Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.
Manchester United v Club America
When: Thursday, 9pm Arizona time (Friday UAE, 8am)
Day 1, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day - 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
The verdict Three wickets down at lunch, on a featherbed wicket having won the toss, and Sri Lanka’s fragile confidence must have been waning. Then Karunaratne and Chandimal's alliance of precisely 100 gave them a foothold in the match. Dickwella’s free-spirited strokeplay meant the Sri Lankans were handily placed at 227 for four at the close.
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.”
Results
1. New Zealand Daniel Meech – Fine (name of horse), Richard Gardner – Calisto, Bruce Goodin - Backatorps Danny V, Samantha McIntosh – Check In. Team total First round: 200.22; Second round: 201.75 – Penalties 12 (jump-off 40.16 seconds) Prize €64,000
2. Ireland Cameron Hanley – Aiyetoro, David Simpson – Keoki, Paul Kennedy – Cartown Danger Mouse, Shane Breen – Laith. Team total 200.25/202.84 – P 12 (jump-off 51.79 – P17) Prize €40,000
3. Italy Luca Maria Moneta – Connery, Luca Coata – Crandessa, Simone Coata – Dardonge, Natale Chiaudani – Almero. Team total 130.82/198.-4 – P20. Prize €32,000
6 UNDERGROUND
Director: Michael Bay
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Adria Arjona, Dave Franco
2.5 / 5 stars
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Power: 650hp at 6,750rpm
Torque: 800Nm from 2,500-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 11.12L/100km
Price: From Dh796,600
On sale: now
The rules of the road keeping cyclists safe
Cyclists must wear a helmet, arm and knee pads
Have a white front-light and a back red-light on their bike
They must place a number plate with reflective light to the back of the bike to alert road-users
Avoid carrying weights that could cause the bike to lose balance
They must cycle on designated lanes and areas and ride safe on pavements to avoid bumping into pedestrians
The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
