DUBAI // International kite enthusiasts gathered in the emirate on Friday for the third annual kite fiesta.
Teams from various countries gathered for the festival though high winds made it challenging to get some of the larger kites into the skies.
More than 10,000 people were expected to come to the Dubai Shopping Festival event at Dubai Outlet Mall over the course of the day.
Kuwaiti brothers Amar and Ali Buhamar have been attending the event since its inception and have seen it grow in popularity. Although they both have full-time careers, they travel the world through their kite passion, recently visiting countries including France and Turkey while, next week, they will go to the Pune festival, in India.
On the kiting community, Ali Buhamar said: “Sometimes I see these guys more than my sons.”
At the event, he had the largest of the showcased kites, measuring 45 metres and weighing about 20 kilograms, though he was waiting for later in the day to fly it because of the winds and the large crowds, all flying kites.
Sandesh Kddi, from the Indian team, High Fliers, was in the UAE for the first time at the event, after being invited by the festival organisers.
“I’d seen the success of the previous events and really wanted to come,” he said. “It’s so good to see so many people here and, among the kite community, we all know the others share the passion.”
Mr Kddi runs a manufacturing company in India but makes several trips a year to countries for kite events.
He said: “To lift these kinds of kites you have to have winds of around 14 kilometres an hour, so it’s very hard to fly these kites. The mall is a barrier and the crowd is a hindrance.”
Mr Kddi comes from a long line of kiters and said the hobby is something healthy for children to do. “It’s fading in the new generation a little because kids are stuck to video games, indoor games, and you want them to come outside and move a bit. It’s something to do as a whole family, with no age barrier,” he said.
Ali Buhamar, 42, agrees and said that one of the pleasures of travelling to such festivals is the multiculturalism.
“In Malaysia recently there were 32 countries represented,” he said. “This is why Dubai is such a great location for the event as it is such an international community, which brings together so many cultures anyway.”
He and his brother Amar, 37, have been kiting seriously for more than 20 years. Amar said: “Our whole family kites, so we started as children. It’s something that’s passed from generation to generation, fathers to sons.”
Vishal Mahajan is one of the organisers of the festival.
“When we first started the event, it was just meant to be an introductory thing and now it’s become a regular shopping festival event,” he said.
“During the nice weather, it’s a great opportunity for people to get outdoors. Last year we registered about 10,000 people when we had only expected about 6,000 and we hope to have more this year.”
He said the popularity of the event spanned many demographics. “It’s such a mix of people of all nationalities and a safe family area. Being outdoors and right at the mall definitely helps boost the numbers.”
Rajesh Nial, from the Keralan team Kite Life Foundation of India, which promotes heritage through kites, ran a kite workshop for 100 children on Friday morning. It was his second time attending the event.
He, too, was struggling to get the elaborate king of Kerala kite into the air in the early afternoon, with winds again the problem. “The problem is also that there are all these small kites, which can end up cutting ours [when the strings cross]. Last year there wasn’t such a big crowd during the day. More people came later on in the day.”
mswan@thenational.ae
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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