SINGAPORE // Fears of Indian Ocean piracy has forced Volvo Ocean Race organisers to draw up a secret route in and out of Abu Dhabi for the second and third legs of the 2011/12 round-the-world challenge.
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Plans to sail through an East African corridor in the Indian Ocean on Leg Two from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi, and again on Leg Three from Abu Dhabi to Sanya in China, have been scrapped after advice from marine safety experts and the sport's governing body.
Instead, competing yachts will race from Cape Town to an undisclosed "safe haven" port and be transported closer to Abu Dhabi. From there, the fleet complete the leg in a sprint to the UAE capital.
"Abu Dhabi is a very important part of our plans, a real highlight being the race's first-ever stopover in the Middle East," said the race chief executive Knut Frostad. "We will now have a really exciting sprint finish to the emirate over the New Year period as well.
"This has been an incredibly difficult decision. We have consulted leading naval and commercial intelligence experts and their advice could not have been clearer: 'Do not risk it'."
The process will be reversed for the third leg before the race continues on to Sanya, the fourth of 10 host ports in a race that will not finish until July 2012.
"The solution we have found means our boats will still be racing into Abu Dhabi and competing in the in-port race there," Frostad said.
Piracy is a well-organised and highly lucrative business and has expanded into a vast area off the coast of Somalia, with Somali pirates currently holding a number of vessels to ransom.
According to US think tank One Earth Foundation, the average ransom per ship in 2005 was US$150,000 (Dh551,000). By 2010, it had jumped to an average of US$5.4 million per ship, with large cargo vessels and oil tankers a popular prey for the seafaring gunmen.
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In 2010 a record 1,181 seafarers were kidnapped by pirates, according to figures supplied by marine safety experts Dryad Maritime Intelligence. Studies estimate the cost to the global economy from Somali piracy is about US$7-12 billion a year.
Frostad emphasised that the race would still be a round-the-world challenge.
"We continue to be the only continuous sporting event to visit five continents over nine months of gruelling sailing," he said.
Jack Lloyd, the race director and also a senior International Sailing Federation (ISAF) official and respected Olympic and America's Cup umpire, described the change as a "bump in the road which has to be negotiated, albeit a very expensive bump" rather than a race-changing suspension in the action.
ISAF's position is that sailing in waters badly affected by piracy is too risky.
"The measures taken ... are very much in line with the advice that the International Sailing Federation has been giving for some time." said the ISAF Secretary General Jerome Pels.
"The ISAF strongly urges all yacht skippers intent on sailing anywhere in the area to seek an alternative, which the Volvo Ocean Race is now providing."
The race, with six teams declared so far, is to set off from Alicante to Cape Town in November, and will finish in July 2012 in Galway, Ireland.
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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.”
