Marka said it would open the first City Chic store in Dubai at Festival City Mall. Rachel Murray / Getty Images for City Chic / AFP
Marka said it would open the first City Chic store in Dubai at Festival City Mall. Rachel Murray / Getty Images for City Chic / AFP

Business

Marka to open three City Chic stores in the UAE

The retailer has already launched four international fashion brands in the UAE namely: Laurèl, Weill, Essentiel Antwerp and Sonia by Sonia Rykiel.

Shereen El Gazzar

September 01, 2015

Marka is bringing an Australian fashion brand for fuller-figured women to the UAE.

The Dubai retailer plans to open three City Chic stores before the end of the year as it continues its acquisition spree since listing its shares a year ago. The “plus-size” fashion market is a fast-growing retail segment according to the Marka chief executive Nick Peel who said the City Chic deal would address an “important gap in the GCC’s fashion scene”. Marka said it would open the first City Chic store in Dubai at Festival City Mall.

The retailer has already launched four international fashion brands in the UAE: Laurèl; Weill; Essentiel Antwerp; and Sonia by Sonia Rykiel.

Last month, the company said it narrowed its second-quarter losses as it started accruing revenues from its operations. Marka, which listed on the Dubai Financial Market last September, posted a loss of Dh2.14 million for the three months to June compared with a loss of Dh8.3m reported in the first quarter of 2015.

The company has been busy adding brands this year, acquiring a majority stake in the children’s entertainment group Cheeky Monkeys, the restaurant chain Reem Al Bawadi and the sports memorabilia company Icons. It also bought Retailcorp from the Dubai investment company Istithmar.

Another addition to its food and beverage portfolio was the restaurant brand Taste of Italy by Heinz Beck.

Marka also plans to take UK-based ice-cream chain Morelli’s to Qatar, Oman, Lebanon, Egypt and expand further in Saudi Arabia.

The company also expects to launch Harper’s Bazaar Cafe at the Dubai Design District in October.

Marka now operates 34 stores, and has plans to increase that number to 64 during the next year.

selgazzar@thenational.ae

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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.”

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