The folks at the Laureus World Sports Awards might have assumed that by persuading the likes of Hugh Grant and Gwyneth Paltrow to show up to the Emirates Palace, they had the upper hand in Abu Dhabi's swoon quotient.
But for me, the main attraction turned out to be across the emirate on Yas Island in the form of an average-sized man wearing a blue suit, his brown eyes slightly bulging from behind wire-rimmed glasses.
"There is no difference with going into a store and stealing Pringles or a handbag and taking this stuff," said James Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation's European and Asian operations and heir apparent to his father's media conglomerate. "There should be the same level of property rights whether it's a house or a movie."
Forget perfect smiles and rock-solid abs. Give this writer some tough talk about protecting the words she creates - not to mention her livelihood - any day.
"Content is no different," he added, with the kind of hang-'em-at-high-noon swagger that makes me homesick for Texas. "They're not crazy kids. No. Punish them."
To misquote Bonnie Tyler, journalists need a hero. And, there, at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit, they were.
After years of being told by ruthless bosses that our service is as easily replaced as that of a line worker in Detroit, my heart beat faster listening to Mr Murdoch's call to arms. "We need enforcement mechanisms and we need governments to play ball."
For two and a half days, 400 delegates roamed the halls of Yas Hotel, their panel discussions punctuated by the roar of race car engines. Top bosses and their minions from some of the world's most recognisable media and technology companies gathered to assess the state of their industries and explore business ties that could bring them closer together.
For Abu Dhabi, the inaugural summit was designed to put the emirate on the map. And many attendees said it had succeeded.
Ernest Wilson, the dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and the chairman of the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, flew in from New York. "It helped me understand the needs of the region, and what I can do in partnerships that I have here to contribute to the region," he told my colleague Keach Hagey on the summit's final day.
Tony Orsten, chief executive of the Abu Dhabi Media Zone twofour54, told Hagey that he had "met dozens of people who had considered coming to the Middle East, but weren't sure". By the end of the conference, however, Mr Orsten enthused that the participants saw Abu Dhabi as "a place that they could be involved in".
"I think this has really put us on the map, and allowed us to speak with more of a global voice, as well as a regional one," he added.
Over the course of the summit, we heard that Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, had a "cordial" visit from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. We saw Rupert Murdoch hold court in a corner of a restaurant on the first night of the conference.
It wasn't all schmoozing, though. The summit did result in a few deals getting done too.
Even before the first plenary began, there was the announcement that News Corporation had partnered with twofour54 to make the capital a central location in the company's bid to expand throughout the Middle East.
Fox International Channels, a subsidiary of News Corp, is making Abu Dhabi its regional hub for online advertising sales, documentary production and satellite television broadcasting.
And, on the last day, Mubadala Development, the strategic investment arm of the Abu Dhabi Government, agreed to buy a 9 per cent stake in The Raine Group, an investment bank specialising in media, entertainment and sport.
This connects our part of the world to Ari Emanuel, who inspired the agent on the HBO series Entourage and is brother of Rahm, the US White House chief of staff. Ari worked at several Hollywood talent agencies before founding Endeavor Talent Agency. After its merger with William Morris, he became the chief executive of WME Entertainment, which represents more than 1,000 clients including Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake and Sacha Baron Cohen.
Meanwhile, Google executives were said to be meeting with their counterparts at America Online and News Corporation to renegotiate online search deals. The chairman of Asustek Computer, Jonney Shih, told David George-Cosh, our telecoms reporter, that he had met the AMD chief executive Dirk Meyer to talk about how the two companies could build faster and more powerful computers together. "It was good experience to see how the media side works," Mr Shih said. "We're becoming very interconnected because of the move to cloud computing."
The summit also had a bit of celebrity, if not exactly the A-list. Your humble trio of correspondents managed to sneak into the closing night party being hosted by Twentieth Century Fox. (Shah Rukh Khan only made an appearance via the screen, sadly.)
And we did run into Shane McMahon, the scion of the World Wrestling Entertainment's chief executive Vince McMahon, as he wandered Yas Hotel's halls, looking to meet decision-makers to help him develop several new media ventures.
What was he doing there? "You have to go where the money is," he said.
@Email:ashah@thenational.ae
The%20specs
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The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
Company%20profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
HIV on the rise in the region
A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.
New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.
Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.
Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.
Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.
BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
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.”
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
EA%20Sports%20FC%2024
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MATCH INFO
FA Cup fifth round
Chelsea v Manchester United, Monday, 11.30pm (UAE), BeIN Sports
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
PROVISIONAL FIXTURE LIST
Premier League
Wednesday, June 17 (Kick-offs uae times) Aston Villa v Sheffield United 9pm; Manchester City v Arsenal 11pm
Friday, June 19 Norwich v Southampton 9pm; Tottenham v Manchester United 11pm
Saturday, June 20 Watford v Leicester 3.30pm; Brighton v Arsenal 6pm; West Ham v Wolves 8.30pm; Bournemouth v Crystal Palace 10.45pm
Sunday, June 21 Newcastle v Sheffield United 2pm; Aston Villa v Chelsea 7.30pm; Everton v Liverpool 10pm
Monday, June 22 Manchester City v Burnley 11pm (Sky)
Tuesday, June 23 Southampton v Arsenal 9pm; Tottenham v West Ham 11.15pm
Wednesday, June 24 Manchester United v Sheffield United 9pm; Newcastle v Aston Villa 9pm; Norwich v Everton 9pm; Liverpool v Crystal Palace 11.15pm
Thursday, June 25 Burnley v Watford 9pm; Leicester v Brighton 9pm; Chelsea v Manchester City 11.15pm; Wolves v Bournemouth 11.15pm
Sunday June 28 Aston Villa vs Wolves 3pm; Watford vs Southampton 7.30pm
Monday June 29 Crystal Palace vs Burnley 11pm
Tuesday June 30 Brighton vs Manchester United 9pm; Sheffield United vs Tottenham 11.15pm
Wednesday July 1 Bournemouth vs Newcastle 9pm; Everton vs Leicester 9pm; West Ham vs Chelsea 11.15pm
Thursday July 2 Arsenal vs Norwich 9pm; Manchester City vs Liverpool 11.15pm
Company%20Profile
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Fixtures
Sunday, December 8, Sharjah Cricket Stadium – UAE v USA
Monday, December 9, Sharjah Cricket Stadium – USA v Scotland
Wednesday, December 11, Sharjah Cricket Stadium – UAE v Scotland
Thursday, December 12, ICC Academy, Dubai – UAE v USA
Saturday, December 14, ICC Academy, Dubai – USA v Scotland
Sunday, December 15, ICC Academy, Dubai – UAE v Scotland
Note: All matches start at 10am, admission is free
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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