Jellyfish and strong currents are only some of the challenges facing former British soldier Will Follett as he attempts to swim 11 kilometres around Palm Jumeirah in Dubai.
If he succeeds, the father of two, 41, will become the fifth person to complete the feat.
Mr Follett hopes his long-distance challenge can be completed in under four hours and he can raise Dh20,000 ($5,445) for the Gulf for Good UAE charity to support an orphanage in Tanzania.
Months of training will culminate on November 20, when he pulls on his trunks and dives into the warm waters of the Arabian Gulf.
Mr Follett will swim alongside a safety boat and two kayaks, in front and behind him. Water temperatures are around 30°C, so keeping cool will be a major part of the challenge.
“The last attempt to swim around The Palm was about five years ago, so it doesn’t happen very often,” he said.
“It has been like swimming in a bath in recent months but it is getting cooler.
“This will be the longest swim I have taken on, so rehydration is very important.
“I set off on a recent training swim from The Palm Residences and within five minutes I had been stung by a jellyfish.
“On that route, I was stung about five times in total. Once you’re swimming, the adrenaline kicks in and the pain soon wears off.”
His support crew will have vinegar on hand to deactivate the venom that jellyfish release, as well as plenty of water, dehydration salts and energy gels.
It will not be Mr Follett’s first long-distance, open-water swim in the region, having taken on the 4km Al Fahal Island swim in Oman six years ago.
That took him 70 minutes but the Palm swim is likely to take four times as long.
Five years of service in the British Army with the light infantry saw him stationed in Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq. He left the military in 2006 and emigrated to Dubai a year later.
Now working for security and crisis management group Restrata, the company’s tracking equipment will be used to monitor his swim while he is in the water.
Funds raised will provide support for children living at Larchfield Children’s Home in Mkuranga, south of the Tanzanian capital, Dar-es-Salaam.
The orphanage was established by private donors in 2011, to help Tanzanian children abandoned by their parents.
Money is raised by the UAE-registered Gulf for Good charity, with 75 per cent donated to Larchfield Children’s Home, 15 per cent to the charity and 10 per cent towards International Humanitarian City for its emergency response work.
“It was not just about the challenge but the output,” said Mr Follett, who will be supported during the challenge by his wife and former military colleagues.
“Having been to Tanzania with Restrata, the children’s home struck a chord.
“I enjoy swimming and not many people have swum around The Palm so it was an interesting challenge.
“I have lived here for 14 years now and it is such an iconic symbol of Dubai, it seemed the perfect way to gather interest in the cause.”
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.”
Arrogate's winning run
1. Maiden Special Weight, Santa Anita Park, June 5, 2016
2. Allowance Optional Claiming, Santa Anita Park, June 24, 2016
3. Allowance Optional Claiming, Del Mar, August 4, 2016
4. Travers Stakes, Saratoga, August 27, 2016
5. Breeders' Cup Classic, Santa Anita Park, November 5, 2016
6. Pegasus World Cup, Gulfstream Park, January 28, 2017
7. Dubai World Cup, Meydan Racecourse, March 25, 2017
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