Equity Magazine November 2017
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NOVEMBER <strong>2017</strong> | ISSUE 06<br />
LEWIS HAMILTON<br />
G.O.A.T ?<br />
THE FUTURE<br />
OF FINANCE<br />
MAKE WAY FOR ROBOTS<br />
TRAVEL<br />
CELEBRITY-LOVED<br />
ASIAN ESCAPES
Extraordinary is in the detail.<br />
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Please contact us on 800-BENTLEY [800 236 8539]<br />
or visit us at www.uae.bentleymotors.com for more information<br />
2<br />
EQUITY<br />
The name ‘Bentley’ and the ‘B’ in wings device are registered trademarks. © <strong>2017</strong> Bentley Motors Limited.
Be Extraordinary.<br />
1<br />
EQUITY
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IF YOU CAN GROW IT,<br />
WE CAN GROOM IT.
4<br />
EQUITY
CALIBER RM 11-02<br />
LE MANS CLASSIC<br />
OFFICIAL TIMEKEEPER<br />
5<br />
EQUITY
6<br />
EQUITY
From the EDITOR<br />
Formula 1, Dubai Watch Week, Dubai Design<br />
Days – there are plenty of events to hotfoot<br />
to this month. Which one will you be at?<br />
Our diaries are getting busier by the day,<br />
and within no time the festive season will kick in. We<br />
can’t wait to jet off to cooler climes, and with lavish<br />
getaways now bookable at the click of a button –<br />
sans stress – we have ample time to attend soirées,<br />
and make it to exclusive openings and collection<br />
launches around town.<br />
Need inspiration booking a holiday? Choose from celebrity-loved<br />
residences in Asia (page 59), or opt for an upscale Airbnb type service<br />
featuring luxury homes (page 22). If you are heading back to the UK, read<br />
all about Inheritance Tax and take necessary precaution (page 18). Find<br />
out what Dennis Whitney, Senior Vice President of the Institute of<br />
Management Accountants (IMA) has to say about robots paving the way<br />
for the future. Since F1 is looming, we look at Lewis Hamilton’s rise to the<br />
top and the rush he derives from racing and competing (page 27).<br />
<strong>Equity</strong>’s statement pieces lend stimuli for gift buyers (page 38-39 and 45<br />
onwards), so you don’t have to do the ground work. While here, golfers<br />
looking to try a new fairway and treat the family to a staycation, can head<br />
to Ras Al Khaimah (page 64 and 67). For al fresco gatherings, dinner dates<br />
and unique culinary experiences, look no further than page 56.<br />
EDITOR'S PICK<br />
I’m on the hunt for double cuff<br />
shirts for women, to accessorize<br />
with these stunning Royal Oak<br />
cufflinks from Audemars Piguet<br />
Happy reading<br />
Nicola<br />
Nicola Monteath<br />
I got my hands on a classic tan<br />
handbag from the Swagger<br />
collection with my initials and a<br />
snowflake icon on the tag and<br />
absolutely love it<br />
Follow us:<br />
equitymedia.uae equitymedia.uae equitymedia.uae equitymedia.uae<br />
EQUITY - Always invest in yourself<br />
EDITOR NICOLA MONTEATH - nicola@equity.media<br />
DIGITAL EDITOR VARUN GODINHO<br />
DEPUTY EDITOR MERYL D'SOUZA<br />
ART DIRECTOR ODILAINE MEJORADA<br />
SALES advertising@equity.media<br />
WWW.EQUITY.MEDIA<br />
PRINTED BY United Printing & Publishing<br />
is a proud member of<br />
Adding a burst of colour and a little<br />
sparkle to my outfits with this Cherie<br />
turquoise necklace from Chantecler<br />
7<br />
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insideEQUITY<br />
22<br />
mind<br />
12<br />
MARK YOUR CALENDAR<br />
The hottest events happening<br />
around the globe<br />
14 18<br />
14<br />
18<br />
22<br />
27<br />
33<br />
34<br />
RISE OF THE MACHINES<br />
Robots will soon replace<br />
accountants worldwide<br />
DOES INHERITANCE TAX<br />
CONCERN YOU?<br />
Chris Ferguson discusses further<br />
THE ART OF TRAVEL<br />
Why this CEO chose to launch a<br />
luxury Airbnb style service?<br />
LEWIS HAMILTON<br />
His journey to the top, stardom<br />
and track rivalry<br />
HERE COMES THE MONEY<br />
Education, the next best<br />
alternative investment<br />
SUPPORT LOCAL<br />
A chat with the founder of<br />
mrUsta, Ibrahim Colak<br />
body<br />
38<br />
&<br />
soul<br />
THE CHECKLIST<br />
Personalise your pieces and add<br />
these staples to your wardrobe<br />
42<br />
40<br />
42<br />
SHOP TALK<br />
It's time to go shopping<br />
INDULGE YOURSELF<br />
Make an appointment and try the<br />
latest treatments on offer<br />
8<br />
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NOVEMBER <strong>2017</strong><br />
45<br />
45<br />
ON OUR RADAR<br />
Statement pieces to covet and<br />
add to your wishlist<br />
56<br />
DINING CONCEPTS<br />
Take your pick from these<br />
culinary experiences<br />
59<br />
A HOME AWAY FROM HOME<br />
These escapes in Asia offer all the<br />
amenities of a hotel<br />
59<br />
70<br />
63<br />
64<br />
67<br />
70<br />
72<br />
JETSETTER JOURNEYS<br />
Travel inspiration for your next<br />
big holiday<br />
HIT THE LINKS<br />
Explore this golf course<br />
STAY OF THE MONTH<br />
Explore Hilton<br />
Al Hamra Beach & Golf Resort<br />
SUITE LIFE<br />
Jordan has become the spot to<br />
invest in<br />
GET TO KNOW...<br />
LINDSAY TRIVERS<br />
A peek into her life<br />
On the cover<br />
LEWIS HAMILTON<br />
Read his interview on page 27<br />
The publication may not be<br />
reproduced, stored in a retrieval<br />
system, or transmitted in any<br />
form or by any means electronic,<br />
photocopying, recording or<br />
otherwise, without the permission<br />
of <strong>Equity</strong> Media. Where opinion<br />
is expressed it is that of the<br />
author and does not necessarily<br />
reflect the editorial views of<br />
the publishers of<br />
EQUITY-Always invest in yourself.<br />
All information in<br />
EQUITY-Always invest in yourself<br />
is checked and verified to the best<br />
of the publisher’s ability, however<br />
the publisher cannot be held<br />
responsible for any mistakes or<br />
omissions enclosed in<br />
the publication in content,<br />
advertising or graphics.<br />
9<br />
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10<br />
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mind<br />
Should you worry about<br />
robots taking over your<br />
job? How can UK expats<br />
work around inheritance<br />
tax laws? Is Lewis Hamilton<br />
F1's best driver ever? Read<br />
on to find out the answers<br />
to these questions<br />
11<br />
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CALENDAR<br />
MARK YOUR CALENDAR<br />
Jetsetters, don’t forget to add these dates to your diary<br />
1<br />
THE PORTUGUESE COLLECTION BY KATE TOLEDO<br />
2<br />
WHERE? PROART Gallery, Dubai<br />
WHEN? <strong>November</strong> 1<br />
Dubai based artist Kate Toledo launches her fourth solo exhibition, entitled "The<br />
Portuguese Collection," a retrospective on Portuguese history through modern travels.<br />
The pieces showcase Toledo’s musings and inspiration, realised from over a dozen canvas<br />
works, and her signature three silk scarves. The artist pays tribute to Seventeeth and<br />
Eighteenth century ceramic works, with inspiration from Portuguese tile work on religious<br />
and public buildings, and intricate patterns. The series took over three years to complete,<br />
and is, in part, inspired by Reinado Wanili – one of the few documented faiança artists.<br />
THE NEW YORK<br />
COMEDY FESTIVAL<br />
WHERE? Throughout New York<br />
WHEN? <strong>November</strong> 1-6<br />
Trevor Noah, Tracy Morgan,<br />
Dane Cook and some of the<br />
most renowned comedians of<br />
our time will come together for a<br />
few nights for a barrel of laughs<br />
and entertainment.<br />
3<br />
ICELAND AIRWAVES<br />
WHERE? Multiple venues<br />
across Reykjavik<br />
WHEN? <strong>November</strong> 1-5<br />
It's one of the country’s most<br />
renowned festivals, which began<br />
in an aeroplane hangar in 1999.<br />
Musical acts including Hozier,<br />
Caribou and plenty others,<br />
will stun audiences at venues<br />
across Reykjavik. The five-day<br />
festival also showcases Iceland’s<br />
best volcanic bits, including<br />
Blue Lagoon.<br />
12<br />
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CALENDAR<br />
4<br />
FINOVATE ASIA<br />
WHERE? JW Marriott, Hong Kong<br />
WHEN? <strong>November</strong> 7-8<br />
The fintech community come<br />
together to showcase cutting-edge<br />
banking, finance and payments<br />
technology in a short-form demoonly<br />
format. Attend this to gain<br />
insights from global financial<br />
service experts, and meet with<br />
companies in the field, while<br />
listening to talks from industry<br />
leaders.<br />
GREENURBANSCAPE ASIA<br />
<strong>2017</strong> MARKETPLACE<br />
5WHERE? Singapore EXPO<br />
Convention and Exhibition Centre<br />
WHEN? <strong>November</strong> 9<br />
Calling those with a green thumb,<br />
landscapers, and anyone interested<br />
in greenery. The conference<br />
focuses specifically on green<br />
technology, design and<br />
construction, with vendors<br />
including Asano Mokkou – Sho<br />
Co. Ltd, Every Green Agriculture,<br />
Far East Flora and more. Get ready<br />
to gain knowledge at workshops,<br />
engaging talks and events, while<br />
learning current trends.<br />
6<br />
SMART CITY EXPO WORLD CONGRESS<br />
WHERE? Gran Via Venu, Barcelona<br />
WHEN? <strong>November</strong> 14-16<br />
The congress continues promoting debate and creating<br />
synergies surrounding global topics. This is a platform<br />
for experts and entrepreneurs looking to gain and share<br />
knowledge on governance, mobility, the economy,<br />
society, sustainability and data technology.<br />
7<br />
MONEYLIVE<br />
WHERE? St Paul’s, London<br />
WHEN? <strong>November</strong> 28-29<br />
The UK’s unrivalled strategic conference for retail<br />
bankers offers everything from open banking and<br />
fintech, to customer engagement and digitization.<br />
Don’t miss keynotes from Lloyds Banking Group,<br />
Santander, Google and plenty others. Current trends,<br />
focus sessions on date and cyber security are part of the<br />
programme too.<br />
13<br />
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FINANCE<br />
RISE OF THE<br />
MACHINES<br />
Dennis Whitney, Senior Vice<br />
President of the Institute of<br />
Management Accountants<br />
(IMA), elucidates the<br />
AI phenomenon and talks<br />
about robots replacing<br />
accountants in the near future<br />
By Meryl D’souza<br />
14<br />
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FINANCE<br />
Dennis Whitney, Senior Vice President<br />
of the Institute of Management<br />
Accountants (IMA)<br />
In 2013, Mark Zuckerberg hired one of the<br />
world’s leading deep-learning and<br />
machine-learning scientists, New York<br />
University’s Professor Yann LeCun, to<br />
lead Facebook’s artificial intelligence laboratory.<br />
Facebook, a company that builds its business by<br />
learning about its users and packaging their data<br />
for advertisers, invested in AI with the hope that<br />
it could better understand its users’ line of<br />
thinking by teaching a computer to think.<br />
There are about 1.2 billion people uploading<br />
136,000 photos and updating their status<br />
293,000 times per minute. It’s pretty much<br />
impossible for Facebook to quantify that<br />
volume of data with human employees. That’s<br />
where the social media platform’s Artificial<br />
Intelligence – in the shape of deep-learning –<br />
comes in. Deep-learning allows machines to<br />
learn and classify data by themselves. It’s no<br />
wonder Zuckerberg is constantly championing<br />
Artificial Intelligence and its many benefits.<br />
In July this year, many newspapers and websites<br />
resorted to sensationalism with headlines to the<br />
tune of, “Did we humans just create<br />
Frankenstein?”. Those headlines fed AI<br />
naysayers. The truth is far less appealing.<br />
Researchers at Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence<br />
Research had built a chatbot that was meant to<br />
learn how to negotiate, by mimicking human<br />
trading and bartering. But when the social<br />
network paired two bots, nicknamed Alice and<br />
Bob, to trade against each other, they deviated<br />
from human language and learnt their own form<br />
of communication. Although Facebook’s<br />
bargain-hunting bots aren’t a sign of an imminent<br />
singularity — or anything even approaching that<br />
level of sophistication — they are significant, in<br />
part because they prove once again that an<br />
important realm we once assumed was solely the<br />
domain of humans, language, is definitely a<br />
shared space.<br />
The shock with AI though has always been the<br />
singularity. How long until machines become<br />
smarter than us? How long until they take over?<br />
That line of thinking isn’t simply limited to a few<br />
conspiracy theorists. There’s a growing number<br />
of people, including great minds like Elon Musk,<br />
who believe that a Terminator-style Armageddon<br />
will be upon us soon enough. In fact, the Tesla<br />
and SpaceX founder even described Zuckerberg’s<br />
understanding of the subject as limited. When it<br />
comes to AI, Musk doesn’t mince words. He is<br />
strictly against the idea, dubbed it "the greatest<br />
risk we face as a civilization" and has called for<br />
swift government regulation on the subject. In<br />
September this year, Musk even went so far as to<br />
tweet, “China, Russia, soon all countries w strong<br />
computer science. Competition for AI superiority<br />
at national level most likely cause of WW3 imo.”<br />
When it comes to AI, Dennis Whitney, Senior<br />
Vice President of the Institute of Management<br />
Accountants (IMA), leans more towards<br />
Zuckerberg than Musk. “I personally don’t<br />
believe in a technological singularity,” Whitney<br />
says. “I believe there are boundaries to how far<br />
AI will go. There’ll be a self-imposed limit on our<br />
creation of the robots that would not allow that<br />
to happen.”<br />
A vocal supporter of AI, Whitney believes the<br />
technological advancement is just another tool<br />
that can has the ability to make our lives easier<br />
and more interesting. “There is a risk of people<br />
losing their jobs. People with routine jobs like<br />
auditors and accountants who file tax returns will<br />
suffer,” Whitney says. “It’s just something that<br />
will happen.”<br />
He’s not wrong. Industrial revolution brings<br />
disruption in just about every industry. What<br />
matters is how we tackle that disruption. “I have<br />
the benefit of experience which gives me<br />
hindsight,” Whitney explains. “When I started,<br />
we did accounting on paper and ledgers. If we<br />
made a mistake, we’d have to recalculate<br />
everything. Then, IBN came out with computers<br />
and eventually products like Excel came into the<br />
fold. Interestingly, with more technological<br />
advancements, people kept saying accounting<br />
jobs are going to go away. And some did, but<br />
15<br />
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FINANCE<br />
we adapted. We’re here and we still have jobs. Jobs will go<br />
away, but there will be other jobs that are created.”<br />
He’s not wrong. In the US, more than 2 two million<br />
people were employed as accountants, bookkeepers, and<br />
auditors in 2015. Until now, these types of informationoriented<br />
professions have resisted automation because they<br />
require managing unstructured data emanating from the real<br />
world, making judgments, and dealing with actual people.<br />
What's different now, however, is that<br />
artificial intelligence's perceptive<br />
capabilities have improved. Machines can<br />
now handle images, sounds, and text in a<br />
way that enables them to ingest and<br />
analyse data at high volume, without<br />
making costly mistakes. Between<br />
accounting professionals and truck<br />
drivers alone, about 4.5 million human<br />
jobs could be ceded to robots over the<br />
next few years.<br />
So, how are people to adapt when<br />
they’re going to be replaced altogether?<br />
Whitney believes education is the answer.<br />
Specifically, education in those fields that will be in high<br />
demand like computer programming, data analytics, applied<br />
mathematics and statistics. Basically, high-level accounting<br />
jobs like the CMA that’s focused on planning, analysis and<br />
risk management. “We have to look at AI as a source of<br />
analysis and information and retune ourselves so we can get<br />
those higher-level jobs that require judgement and<br />
We have to look at AI as a<br />
source of analysis and<br />
information and retune<br />
ourselves so we can get<br />
those higher-level jobs<br />
that require judgement<br />
and recommendations<br />
recommendations,” Whitney says.<br />
As proof, look no further than Germany. The Germans<br />
went from having two industrial robots per thousand people<br />
in 1994 to almost eight in 2014. This let factories cut worker<br />
wages while managers and scientists took home more cash.<br />
Whitney believes that while people can spend time educating<br />
themselves to avoid being unemployed for too long, the<br />
government also needs to take responsibility. “It’s not just<br />
companies that have to be aware of the<br />
AI revolution, governments need to<br />
intervene and take care of its citizens,”<br />
Whitney says. “That’s something we miss<br />
in the US. The AI takeover is coming<br />
quick – less than ten years away – which is<br />
why governments need a plan in place.<br />
Things like reduced cost of training, a<br />
proper healthcare plan and minimum<br />
wage could go a long way to make all of<br />
this easier.” Since America and its<br />
healthcare bills are a rabbit hole we’d<br />
rather not get into right now, Whitney<br />
talks about the alternatives for younger<br />
minds. Specifically, the AI and cybersecurity field. “A<br />
nightmare scenario for us right now is robots turning on<br />
humans. Worse still, is a human controlling those robots<br />
who are turning on humans,” Whitney warns. “It is a<br />
possibility and that’s why I think more young people should<br />
get into those fields. With everything online, the world<br />
needs that bit taken care of.”<br />
16<br />
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17<br />
EQUITY
WEALTH MANAGEMENT<br />
DOES<br />
INHERITANCE TAX<br />
CONCERN YOU?<br />
Chris Ferguson at Credence International explains why<br />
UK expats should learn more about this tax type<br />
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EQUITY
WEALTH MANAGEMENT<br />
UK IHT receipts increased from £2.3bn in<br />
2009/2010 to a staggering £4.8bn in<br />
2016/<strong>2017</strong>. This is expected to increase to<br />
£5.8bn around 2018/2019<br />
There are few taxes in life that are optional and<br />
inheritance tax is one of them. IHT can cost<br />
your family and loved ones a considerable sum<br />
of money in the event of your death. However,<br />
with a little forward planning, it is possible to legitimately<br />
avoid this tax. Therefore, it is a necessity to understand the<br />
basics and create a strategic plan. Here’s a brief look at<br />
IHT in the UK and some ways it can be minimised.<br />
IHT is a tax payable by a British domiciled individual on<br />
worldwide assets, in the event of their death. It is<br />
chargeable at a rate of 40 per cent on all assets, over the<br />
current Nil Rate Band (NRB) which is £325,000<br />
(Dhs1,574,677). Married couples or those in a civil<br />
partnership, each receive the NRB, thus increasing the<br />
threshold to £650,000. The NRB has not changed since<br />
2009 and is fixed at £325,000 until 2021.<br />
In the past, IHT was largely aimed at high net worth<br />
individuals, however more UK citizens are now paying<br />
significant IHT. Indeed, UK IHT receipts increased from<br />
£2.3bn in 2009/2010 to a staggering £4.8bn in 2016/<strong>2017</strong>,<br />
according to figures from Statista. This is expected to<br />
increase to £5.8bn around 2018/2019. London and the<br />
South-East account for a high proportion of IHT receipts,<br />
according to The Telegraph, which is not surprising, given<br />
that much of the UK’s property and business wealth is<br />
concentrated in these areas.<br />
Whether or not you can change your domicile to avoid<br />
the tax, is a complex area and often one that is<br />
misunderstood. Whilst many people who have lived<br />
abroad and have been non-residents for many years<br />
consider themselves no longer UK domiciled, the reality is<br />
very different. Being non-resident certainly does not imply<br />
non-domicile, and it is your address that determines where<br />
you pay IHT and not your residency. At birth, you receive<br />
your domicile of origin from your father (or mother if<br />
your parents were not married at the time). This will<br />
remain unless your parents lived abroad and changed their<br />
own domicile by choice before you were aged 16 – then<br />
you would also change to the domicile of dependency.<br />
After age 16, your domicile depends on your own<br />
circumstances. British expats may live abroad for many<br />
years without losing their UK domicile if they have not<br />
taken sufficient steps to break their ties with the UK.<br />
19<br />
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WEALTH MANAGEMENT<br />
Inheritance tax rules are convoluted, but it's<br />
worth knowing that if you are married or in a civil<br />
partnership, and your estate is worth less than<br />
£325,000, any unused threshold can be added to<br />
your partner’s threshold at your time of death. No<br />
IHT is payable if you pass on your home to your<br />
spouse or civil partner. However, if the home is<br />
left to another person in your will, it will count<br />
towards the value of the estate. If you give away<br />
your home to your children or grandchildren, your<br />
threshold will increase to £425,000. (This is known<br />
as the Residence NRB and basically adds £100,000<br />
to the NRB, if you pass to your direct descendants).<br />
In relation to offerings, a gift made seven<br />
years or more before death are known as a<br />
‘potentially exempt transfers’ (PETs) and will<br />
not be taxable. Gifts that are not exempt from<br />
IHT will be charged 40 per cent tax if given in<br />
the three years before you die. Gifts made three<br />
to seven years before your death will be taxed<br />
on a sliding scale. However, this only applies to<br />
larger items as smaller than the NRB given,<br />
within the seven years prior to death, will simply<br />
use up all or part of the NRB allowance.<br />
There’s no IHT to pay on gifts between spouses or<br />
civil partners, if they reside in the UK permanently.<br />
You can also currently give away £3,000 worth of<br />
items (each tax year) as an annual exemption, and<br />
unused annual exemptions can be carried forward for<br />
one year. Any assets either gifted to or left in a will to<br />
a registered charity, will also avoid IHT on death.<br />
Nonetheless, other gifts are likely to be counted<br />
towards the value of your estate, and the beneficiaries<br />
of gifts will be charged IHT if you give away more<br />
than £325,000 in the seven years before your death.<br />
It’s worth noting that a loss in value when a<br />
possession is transferred is counted as a gift. For<br />
example, if you sold your property to your child<br />
at a 50 per cent discount to market value, the<br />
difference between the sale price and market<br />
value would be classed as a gift.<br />
To answer your question on whether IHT is<br />
avoidable, the simple answer is yes, if you take<br />
professional, qualified financial advice in advance.<br />
For most people, this would be during their 50s or<br />
60s rather than leaving it until much later in life.<br />
THE NEXT STEP<br />
IHT solutions are very much tailored to<br />
the needs of the individual, there are<br />
some simple steps you can take to<br />
significantly reduce the impact:<br />
• Make a gift to a partner<br />
• Gift family members or friends<br />
• Transfer assets into a trust<br />
• Leave a legacy to charity<br />
• Take out life insurance<br />
When gifting away assets, there are some ways<br />
to continue to see the benefits of that asset<br />
including a regular retirement income. For this,<br />
we recommend you seek professional advice.<br />
Chris Ferguson is the CEO at<br />
Credence International<br />
20<br />
EQUITY
“Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and<br />
Greedy When Others Are Fearful”<br />
Warren Buffett<br />
Financial Planning | Tax Planning | Wealth Management | Corporate Services<br />
United Arab Emirates | United Kingdom | Australia | Bermuda<br />
www.credence-international.com<br />
+971 4 556 5900 | info@credence-international.com<br />
21<br />
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ENTREPRENEUR<br />
The art of<br />
TRAVEL<br />
Thomas Bennett, co-founder of the<br />
luxury home rental social network Stay<br />
One Degree, talks to us about how his<br />
brainchild came about and why he can’t<br />
stand a certain Swedish furniture brand<br />
By Meryl D'Souza<br />
22<br />
EQUITY
ENTREPRENEUR<br />
never used Airbnb. Not because I<br />
wasn’t attracted by the economical<br />
rates and the amazing amenities some<br />
I’ve<br />
places provide, but because of a friend,<br />
who had a horrible experience after booking a<br />
temp abode so that he could attend the annual<br />
Baselworld watch fair. Hotels weren’t an option<br />
because those rooms in the city are booked<br />
years in advance. In truth, he didn’t have much<br />
of a choice. “Most of our previous experiences<br />
with Airbnb were great, except that one time in<br />
2015,” he says. “We landed at the host’s<br />
apartment only to find out that it was under<br />
renovation. There were no beds – just a few<br />
mattresses on the floor, no furniture, no white<br />
goods in the kitchen, and the bathroom door<br />
was an improvised sheet of metal that had to be<br />
crudely pulled over the door frame. There<br />
wasn’t even a WiFi connection. Obviously, the<br />
apartment looked nothing like the pictures that<br />
were uploaded. We immediately raised the issue<br />
with the owner who was occupying the floor<br />
above us. While he sheepishly agreed to refund<br />
the amount without much protest, we got back<br />
onto Airbnb and quickly booked another<br />
apartment across the city, whose owner, a Swiss<br />
security guard, was only too happy to earn an<br />
additional income that week.”<br />
A quick google search showed me my friend<br />
wasn’t alone. There are dreadful stories of<br />
people who leased their homes through the app<br />
for a couple of days only to find the place turned<br />
upside down because of parties hosted there by<br />
guests. Best case scenarios had furniture broken<br />
and stolen, whereas worst-case scenarios had<br />
faeces on the floor, X-rated parties and in one<br />
instance, a guest-turned-squatter refused to<br />
leave the host’s home. In that last instance, the<br />
host had to lawyer up and go through an<br />
eviction process just to get the squatter out of<br />
her 600-sq-ft condo in Palm Springs, California.<br />
Thomas Bennett, co-founder of Stay One<br />
Degree, a luxury home rental social network, has<br />
a similar, albeit less harrowing travel story. “We<br />
had booked a holiday in Bali for two weeks,” he<br />
says. “We trawled through hundreds of homes<br />
on one of the large websites and ultimately<br />
booked a villa that looked fantastic in the<br />
pictures. When we arrived, it was clear that the<br />
photos were heavily edited. The villa was very<br />
tired, incredibly noisy and the air-conditioning<br />
was non-existent. We were unable to sleep in the<br />
30-degree heat. Even worse, we were unable to<br />
change the villa despite complaints and it ruined<br />
our holiday. We vowed never to book again<br />
without a personal connection with the owner.”<br />
23<br />
EQUITY
ENTREPRENEUR<br />
The unique element of<br />
Stay One Degree is that<br />
it is a social network<br />
focused on the luxury<br />
segment of the market,<br />
Bennett explains. Our site<br />
operates in a similar<br />
fashion to LinkedIn.<br />
You can connect with<br />
your friends and view<br />
mutual connections<br />
It was horror stories like those that drove<br />
Bennett and co-founder Jorge Munoz to ditch<br />
their roles in investment banking and create Stay<br />
One Degree. To put it plainly, the website is an<br />
ultra-luxury version of Airbnb. The difference,<br />
however, is in the details. “The unique element<br />
of Stay One Degree is that it is a social network<br />
focused on the luxury segment of the market,”<br />
Bennett explains. “Our site operates in a similar<br />
fashion to LinkedIn. You can connect with your<br />
friends and view mutual connections.”<br />
What that essentially means is that if you want<br />
to rent a holiday home, all you need to do is reach<br />
out to the people within your network of friends<br />
and their friends. That way you’re not reaching<br />
out to a dodgy, anonymous house owner. The<br />
business model also ensures that those renting<br />
are doing so from a trusted connection. “You<br />
also have the added confidence that we handpick<br />
every home to ensure the right quality for<br />
our members and we showcase the best homes<br />
globally,” Bennett adds.<br />
As Bennett mentions, each property that shows<br />
up on the website is personally vetted by himself<br />
and the team to ensure that they meet the<br />
standards befitting their posh clientele – which<br />
Bennett tells us includes Hollywood stars<br />
(including an Oscar winner), golf and football<br />
stars, a celebrity chef and a supermodel. Despite<br />
its lofty standards, Stay One Degree prioritises its<br />
customers. That’s not just regurgitated press<br />
release nonsense. Where other property rental<br />
websites command 50 per cent of a rental fee,<br />
Stay One Degree asks for a meagre eight per cent.<br />
“There are no annual fees or setup charges and<br />
we do all the work for homeowners creating their<br />
home profiles. We wanted to create a scenario<br />
where there is zero cost or effort required to<br />
become a member and list a home,” Bennett says.<br />
“We vet our homes based on quality, desirability<br />
and location rather than simply price,” Bennett<br />
says. “Ultimately, we want our members to have<br />
holiday homes in an exciting and desirable<br />
location, furnished with tasteful décor, and have<br />
access to a day-to-day contact (onsite staff,<br />
property manager or owner).”<br />
Note the remark about furniture that’s<br />
casually sandwiched in there. The co-founders<br />
of Stay One Degree are particular about things<br />
like not having IKEA furniture in homes. “The<br />
quality and style of the home interiors are part<br />
of our selection process and reflect the fact that<br />
most of our residences are real homes and have<br />
not been furnished at the lowest cost solely for<br />
mass rentals,” Bennett clarifies.<br />
I somehow suppress the urge to say, “Oh, snap!”<br />
24<br />
EQUITY
ENTREPRENEUR<br />
25<br />
EQUITY
FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE QUALITY FLEURIER CERTIFICATION AND PARTNER OF THE FONDATION DE LA HAUTE HORLOGERIE<br />
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26<br />
EQUITY
COVER STORY<br />
MAN<br />
IMAGES BY SHUTTERSTOCK AND MERCEDES BENZ<br />
ON FIRE<br />
A decade into his F1 career, Lewis Hamilton hasn’t taken his foot off the<br />
throttle. The triple world champion is on the brink of his fourth title. Here’s<br />
how he shred the rulebook and rose to the top of his game<br />
By Varun Godinho<br />
27<br />
EQUITY
COVER STORY<br />
Lewis Hamilton was an interloper.<br />
When he began his karting<br />
career in 1993, the compulsively<br />
competitive eight-year-old<br />
would consistently beat the<br />
other kids on the track, only to<br />
have their moms come up and<br />
tell him that he wasn’t good<br />
enough. Racing was a whitedominated<br />
sport for wealthy<br />
participants. Hamilton was neither. Undoubtedly, those<br />
disparaging comments had racists undertones. Ironically,<br />
when he began his F1 career in 2007, he was the first black<br />
driver in the history of the sport.<br />
Hamilton grew up rough. His parents separated when he<br />
was two. By the time he was 12, he went to stay with his<br />
father, Anthony, in a tiny one-bed apartment in North<br />
London along with his step-mother and her son. Anthony<br />
worked at up to three jobs at a time and re-mortgaged the<br />
house to finance his son’s racing career. The two travelled<br />
around the UK participating in every karting race they could.<br />
It’s where he perfected the skill of hitting the brakes at the last<br />
moment while going into a corner – a technique to ensure<br />
maximum speed that he still uses today. They had the worst<br />
trailer, travelled in the cheapest car and had the simplest<br />
go-kart compared to the other well-heeled participants, but<br />
that didn’t stop Hamilton from winning every time.<br />
In 1995, at the age of 10, during an awards ceremony at one<br />
of the karting events, he met McLaren’s racing chief, Ron<br />
Dennis. The plucky boy told the F1 veteran that he wanted to<br />
race his cars one day. Incredibly, three years later Dennis<br />
signed on Hamilton to the Young Driver’s Programme.<br />
Hamilton caught his big break at the inaugural race of the<br />
2007 Grand Prix in Australia. Defending double world<br />
champion Fernando Alonso had just moved to McLaren<br />
from Renault and Hamilton was brought in to play the role of<br />
a wingman – rather than challenger – to his teammate. The<br />
22-year-old F1 debutant had other plans. Not only did he<br />
finish his first-ever F1 race on the podium, but also came<br />
frustratingly close to winning the world championship that<br />
year too. He lost out to Kimi Räikkönen by a single point.<br />
Alonso finished third.<br />
The following year, with his confidence peaking, Hamilton<br />
had an incredible season. He won the world title on the final<br />
corner, of the final lap, in the final race of the season<br />
becoming the youngest driver to win a world championship.<br />
An F1 superstar was born.<br />
THE MAKING OF A CHAMPION<br />
There’ve been very good drivers who weren’t showmen<br />
(Michael Schumacher) and consummate playboys (James<br />
Hunt) who weren’t consistent winners. Hamilton was both.<br />
By carefully curating Brand Hamilton – the man who sits in<br />
the front row of London Collections Men, then hops back<br />
onto his Bombardier CL 600 private jet to fly halfway around<br />
the world to win a race and then fly back to catch up with<br />
Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney backstage at another<br />
fashion show – he has turned into a paparazzi darling.<br />
Hopscotching between his residences in Colorado, Monaco<br />
and Switzerland, his pals include A-listers from Pharrell<br />
Williams, Jay Z, Gigi Hadid, Justin Bieber and the<br />
Kardashians; all of who regularly pepper his Instagram feed.<br />
His on-off-on-off-again relationship with the glamorous<br />
Nicole Scherzinger provided plenty of fertile fodder for<br />
gossip rags from The Sun to the Daily Mail to regurgitate daily<br />
in explicit detail.<br />
Hamilton, it can be argued, has had a transcendental<br />
effect on the sport. Think of him as an ambassador for F1.<br />
Even if you haven’t watched a single NBA game in your life,<br />
or couldn’t care less about football and never followed a<br />
single golf championship, names like Michael Jordan, David<br />
Beckham or Tiger Woods aren’t unfamiliar. That’s the case<br />
with Hamilton too, who entered the sport in 2007 at a time<br />
when the absolute dominance of Schumacher reduced F1 to<br />
a predictable and boring phenomenon. Schumacher had<br />
just announced his retirement at the end of 2006 season,<br />
and Hamilton was the fresh-faced party-hard imageconscious<br />
racer that the sport needed. According to a report<br />
in TIME magazine, F1’s revenue was up 53 per cent to $1.83<br />
billion at the end of July last year compared to when<br />
Hamilton entered F1.<br />
It’s no surprise then that erstwhile F1 boss Bernie<br />
Ecclestone famously called Hamilton the “best world<br />
champion we’ve had” – high-praise indeed from the whipin-chief<br />
who made and broke world champions over the<br />
nearly four decades that he was at the helm. “As a driver, he<br />
is absolutely outstanding – as good as there’s ever been.<br />
Apart from the talent, he’s a good guy, he gets out on the<br />
street and supports and promotes Formula One. He is box<br />
office, 100 per cent.”<br />
One of his biggest box-office moments came in 2013 when<br />
he decided to move from McLaren to Mercedes. McLaren’s<br />
racing chief wasn’t happy. The parting between the two was<br />
acrimonious. But with Mercedes believed to have inked a<br />
$100 million three-year contract for their incoming driver,<br />
there was no looking back. He was paired with Nico Rosberg<br />
– the two grew up competing against one another in the<br />
karting series.<br />
Beginning 2014, having settled into his car, Hamilton<br />
began to justify the mini commercial empire that was spun<br />
around F1’s leading man. He romped home to a comfortable<br />
championship win with his teammate finishing second. In<br />
2015, Hamilton repeated his stellar performance and bagged<br />
his third championship title, equaling his childhood hero<br />
Ayrton Senna’s record. That year, Hamilton was offered<br />
another three-year deal with Mercedes, reportedly worth<br />
$135 million. By accepting it, he became the highest paid<br />
British sportsman in Formula One history.<br />
28<br />
EQUITY
COVER STORY<br />
29<br />
EQUITY
COVER STORY<br />
Apart from the talent, he’s a good<br />
guy. He gets out on the street and<br />
supports and promotes Formula<br />
One. He is box office, 100 per cent<br />
By the time the 2016 season began, it was Rosberg’s<br />
time to shine. Hamilton made it clear though that the<br />
gloves were off. He was there to compete and win races,<br />
not make friends. The two began to duke it out on the<br />
track, much to Mercedes’ chagrin. They crashed hard into<br />
each other hard in the opening lap of the Spanish GP,<br />
wrecking both cars. Mercedes’ non-executive chairman<br />
Niki Lauda stepped in and threatened to sever both their<br />
contracts if it ever happened again. That didn’t stop them<br />
from colliding into each other once again two months later<br />
in the final lap of the Austrian race.<br />
Evidently, Rosberg and Hamilton had eroded nearly all<br />
goodwill with their team. But the fact that at least one of the<br />
two drivers – at times both – were on the podium in every<br />
single race except the Spanish GP that year, was enough for<br />
Mercedes to bite their tongue and tolerate the behaviour of<br />
the sparring drivers. Hamilton even turned on his own team<br />
by saying that the engine trouble that he suffered in three<br />
races – Rosberg didn’t face any – wasn’t happenstance. Toto<br />
Wolff, the team’s racing boss, had a soft corner for Hamilton<br />
though and wasn’t ready to read the riot act to either driver.<br />
Wolff’s patience paid off and although Hamilton lost the<br />
championship to Rosberg, the team ended at the top of the<br />
constructor’s championship at the end of the season.<br />
Hamilton isn’t above courting controversies. In the final<br />
race of the Abu Dhabi GP last year, while leading the race<br />
with Rosberg on his tail, he deliberately slowed the pace of<br />
the race. For him to win the championship, he needed to<br />
finish first and Rosberg had to finish fourth or lower.<br />
Hamilton defied team orders over the radio to pick up the<br />
pace and although Rosberg eventually finished second,<br />
Hamilton wasn’t gracious in defeat and defended his right<br />
to control the pace of the race.<br />
Earlier this year, at the Azerbaijan GP, he deliberately<br />
braked hard when the safety car was out so that he could<br />
bunch up the field. A furious Sebastian Vettel who was right<br />
30<br />
EQUITY
COVER STORY<br />
Hamilton at the 2016<br />
Abu Dhabi GP<br />
behind him had to brake hard and was clearly unhappy with<br />
Hamilton’s driving style. While none of these moves<br />
amount to cheating, neither were they entirely fair play.<br />
THE HOME STRETCH<br />
Following Rosberg’s surprise announcement of his retirement<br />
straight after he won the world championship last year,<br />
Hamilton has a new teammate in Valtteri Bottas this year. At<br />
the time of going to press, with only the Brazilian and Abu<br />
Dhabi GP left, Hamilton is leading the driver’s championship.<br />
In the decade he has spent in the fastest sport on the planet,<br />
he has notched 63 wins and has been on the podium on 117<br />
occasions. If he wins the <strong>2017</strong> F1 championship – and the<br />
deck is dealt in his favour – his fourth world championship<br />
win will mean that only Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael<br />
Schumacher have won more championships than him.<br />
Brand Hamilton is in rude health. The interloper is now<br />
a player.<br />
Hamilton with Mercedes<br />
non-executive chairman<br />
Niki Lauda and the team's<br />
racing boss Toto Wolff<br />
Hamilton with<br />
Donatella Versace<br />
31<br />
EQUITY
EDUCATION<br />
HERE<br />
COMES<br />
THE<br />
MONEY<br />
Why investing in education is the next big thing<br />
By Meryl D’souza<br />
32<br />
EQUITY
EDUCATION<br />
Sunny Varkey was a little over three<br />
years old when his parents left him in<br />
the care of family members in India as<br />
they made the haul to the UAE in<br />
search of – figuratively – greener pastures.<br />
When the Varkeys moved to Dubai in the late<br />
Fifties, the then British protectorate was little<br />
more than desert. When Sunny Varkey’s father<br />
wasn’t working for the British Bank of the<br />
Middle East, him and his wife would teach<br />
English to local Arabs, including members of<br />
the royal family.<br />
With the discovery of oil and the influx of<br />
expats from the Asian subcontinent, Sunny<br />
Varkey’s parents saw the demand for their<br />
services grow. To the point that they seized the<br />
opportunity and founded Our Own English<br />
High School in 1968. By then, Sunny Varkey,<br />
who had completed his education at the St.<br />
Mary's Catholic High School in Oud Metha<br />
followed by a year at Bembridge School on the<br />
Isle of Wight in Britain, was employed with<br />
Standard Chartered. While working at the bank,<br />
he stumbled upon his manager’s salary. "I<br />
thought, if I end up being a banker, I will not be<br />
able to develop in life," he told The Guardian.<br />
In the Eighties, when Arab authorities<br />
demanded that the Our Own English High School<br />
be refurbished, Varkey decided to lift that weight<br />
off his parents’ shoulders and oversaw operations<br />
of the school. Today, Global Education<br />
Management Systems (GEMS) Education boasts<br />
schools and education services across 14 countries.<br />
We could give you more stats and figures in a bid<br />
to shock and surprise you, but we’d rather talk in<br />
the universal language of money. GEMS<br />
Education, backed by private equity firms<br />
Blackstone Group LP and Fajr Capital Ltd,<br />
reported unaudited earnings of $539.1 million for<br />
the six months to February <strong>2017</strong> – up 18 per cent<br />
from the same period the year before.<br />
The best part about Varkey’s business model:<br />
It’s recession proof. That, ladies and gentlemen,<br />
is the beauty of investing in education. Sunny<br />
Varkey took a singular school, saw the<br />
opportunity, and created an empire with outlets<br />
not dissimilar to a fast-food chain while offering<br />
private education at varying rates, akin to airlines<br />
with budget and high-end flight options.<br />
If you’ve been paying attention to the markets<br />
in the West, you will have noticed that investors<br />
are starting to look past the conventional office,<br />
retail or industrial property as investment<br />
opportunities. Instead, alternative real estate<br />
assets are rising in popularity owing to their<br />
higher returns. Niche alternatives within the<br />
healthcare and educational sectors outline lower<br />
transactional volumes, less liquidity, lower<br />
transparency and can produce higher yields than<br />
traditional commercial property assets.<br />
According to a comprehensive report by<br />
American professional services and investment<br />
management company, Jones Lang LaSalle<br />
Incorporated (JLL), at least 1,100 additional<br />
schools will be required in Dubai, Abu Dhabi,<br />
Jeddah, Riyadh and Cairo by 2020 to cope with<br />
the increasing demand – 350 of which will need<br />
to be private schools. These private schools<br />
provide a significant opportunity for investors.<br />
“The education sector has sparked the interest of<br />
many real estate investors right across the MENA<br />
region,” says Craig Plumb, head of research at<br />
JLL Mena. “Private equity firms, in particular,<br />
have been very active in recent years, and they<br />
will continue to play a pivotal role in the<br />
expansion of the private education sector here.”<br />
If that isn’t enough to pique your interest, you<br />
should know that between 2010 and 2015, about<br />
Dhs2.3 billion ($626 million) was invested in 45<br />
schools in Abu Dhabi alone. The level of<br />
investments in the school market has increased by<br />
22 per cent, bringing $2.7 billion into the education<br />
sector, reshaping the landscape of education<br />
locally. As innovation and technology will reform<br />
the outdated curriculum and attract skilled<br />
workforce into the system, the education sector<br />
will provide many chances for profit.<br />
Here’s the kicker: Per Khaleej Times<br />
“Investors who canvas these type of alternative<br />
solutions, either as a real estate asset or as a<br />
private equity can earn 15 to 20 per cent more in<br />
margins compared to eight to 10 per cent return<br />
from a conventional property.” Think of it this<br />
way: In five years (give or take a few) you could<br />
either be the guy at home, sitting on his couch,<br />
Netflix-ing a series about another guy who made<br />
it big by playing the education system, or, you<br />
could be the guy the series is about.<br />
33<br />
EQUITY
LOCAL STAR<br />
Tell us about yourself?<br />
I’m originally from Istanbul, Turkey, and<br />
hold a bachelor’s degree in electrical<br />
engineering from Yildiz Technical<br />
University and an MBA from Beykent<br />
University. I am both the co-founder and<br />
CEO of mrUsta.<br />
What exactly is mrUsta?<br />
It’s an open, online marketplace that<br />
allows customers to find quality service<br />
providers ‘Ustas’. Customers deal directly<br />
with the Ustas with no middlemen – for<br />
free – and receive offers from multiple<br />
Ustas based on their requirements. Simply<br />
choose the preferred offer to complete the<br />
job, and rate their Ustas on the platform,<br />
based on their performance. The service is<br />
web-based, but for a more immersive<br />
experience, we recommend that<br />
customers download our app, available<br />
for both Android and iOS devices.<br />
What field were you in prior to this?<br />
I was a product marketing manager at<br />
Nokia, and worked for other large tech<br />
giants like IBM and Vestel for the past<br />
20 years.<br />
How did you see a niche in the market?<br />
A few years back, our air conditioner broke<br />
down in the middle of August. The<br />
building’s management promised to get it<br />
fixed, but never showed up. I called around<br />
for service providers in Dubai who were<br />
willing to do it in short notice. This wasted<br />
hours of my time, with broken promises,<br />
and atrocious rates. After talking to several<br />
friends and colleagues, I realised that this<br />
was not an uncommon story in the UAE.<br />
That’s when mrUsta – the idea – was born.<br />
We officially launched in 2014, with minor<br />
tweaks to our model along to the way, until<br />
we reached the current product.<br />
What have been your major<br />
challenges till date?<br />
We find the biggest challenge to be one of<br />
education. The UAE has one of the most<br />
diverse and complex demographics in the<br />
globe, and finding one common ‘language’<br />
or solution that works for all is nearly<br />
impossibile. There are also varying degrees<br />
of tech-savviness in the country, and not<br />
to the extent you would expect in Europe<br />
and North America. We have to bear in<br />
mind that our friends, friends’ friends, and<br />
social circles are not necessarily<br />
representative of the UAE, as a whole. We<br />
find the challenge is not only to educate<br />
the public about mrUsta – taking into<br />
consideration these complexities – but<br />
also, to a certain degree, teaching them<br />
how to use it. We see the same challenge<br />
with service providers. As an<br />
overwhelming number of them do not<br />
exist in any form in the online space,<br />
teaching them how to take their business<br />
from offline to online does require a bit of<br />
time, patience, and of course, education.<br />
Have you secured funding or gearing<br />
up for a round?<br />
We raised Dhs1.2 million in seed funding<br />
in late 2015, and Dhs2.6 million in a<br />
second round in October <strong>2017</strong>. This<br />
second round was ‘bridge’ financing that<br />
has been instrumental in driving our<br />
growth until we go for our Series A<br />
funding in 2018.<br />
Any interesting launches rolling out<br />
this year?<br />
Based on insight and market studies, we<br />
are regularly launching new categories that<br />
we are confident that our customers – and<br />
potential clients – would be happy to see.<br />
We soft-launched in Riyadh a few months<br />
ago, and as it organically ramps up, we will<br />
officially launch in Saudi Arabia next year.<br />
Where do you see the brand in the<br />
next five years?<br />
We will continue to grow and innovate, and<br />
hopefully, set foot in major markets in the<br />
region. In the next five years, I also see<br />
mrUsta as a regional powerhouse in the<br />
online marketing sector, moving 80 per<br />
cent of offline service market to a digital<br />
platform. In addition, I foresee the brand<br />
being synonymous with service quality, and<br />
our name always being associated with<br />
happiness, convenience, and innovation.<br />
#SUPPORTLOCAL<br />
Meet Ibrahim Colak, Co-Founder and CEO of mrUsta,<br />
an online marketplace that allows customers to find quality service providers<br />
34<br />
EQUITY
ody<br />
&<br />
soul<br />
Indulge in a therapeutic<br />
couple's massage, tee off at<br />
Ras Al Khaimah's finest golf<br />
course, score a megayacht<br />
and place your order for the<br />
next-generation of the<br />
Bentley Continental GT.<br />
Read on to get the inside<br />
scoop on each<br />
35<br />
EQUITY
BILLIONAIRES ARE NOW BUYING<br />
APOCALYPSE INSURANCE<br />
FROM UNDERGROUND BUNKERS TO DETAILED EVACUATION<br />
PLANS, THEY’RE PREPPED WITH PLAN B<br />
IS AMAZON POISED TO<br />
TAKE OVER THE WORLD?<br />
Innovate or incinerate, that is the name of the game<br />
READY FOR AN<br />
ASTON MARTIN SUBMARINE?<br />
Production of the $4 million vessel is limited to a<br />
dozen units per year<br />
THE CASE FOR A CASHLESS UAE<br />
The UAE is primed to become a cashless society.<br />
Here’s why that’s a pretty good idea<br />
NOON AND THE RISE OF E-COMMERCE IN THE UAE<br />
Is the UAE going to see a retail apocalypse soon?<br />
Follow us on social media<br />
36<br />
EQUITY<br />
EQUITYMEDIAUAE
THE ETERNAL MOVEMENT<br />
Ulysse Nardin, from the movement of the sea to the perpetual<br />
innovation of Haute Horlogerie. For over 170 years, the<br />
powerful movement of the ocean has inspired Ulysse Nardin<br />
in its singular quest: to push back the limits of mechanical<br />
watchmaking, time and time again.<br />
Marine Regatta<br />
Chronograph<br />
Countdown timer<br />
Silicium technology<br />
ulysse-nardin.com<br />
ULYSSE NARDIN BOUTIQUES: The Dubai Mall +971 44341421, Mall of the Emirates +971 43950577, Beirut Souks +961 1992092<br />
Abu Dhabi: Al Manara International Jewellery Amman: Time Center Bahrain: Asia Jewellers Cairo: BTC Exclusive Doha: Ali Bin Ali<br />
Jeddah: First Jewelry Kuwait: Morad Yousuf Behbehani Muscat: Le Carat Riyadh: First Jewelry<br />
37<br />
EQUITY
TRENDS<br />
The<br />
CHECKLIST<br />
Chic picks to keep you vogueish this summer<br />
YOUTHFUL PLAY<br />
New York design house, Coach, have finally opened their<br />
doors at Mall of the Emirates, bringing with itself a breath of<br />
fresh air and stunning textured leather pieces. The modern<br />
luxury store boasts that SoHo vibe, with a warm ambience to<br />
make your shopping experience pleasurable. But that’s not all.<br />
The Fall Winter collection lures you in with textured tea roses,<br />
charms and pins adorning everything from mini handbags to<br />
satchels. Take your pick and head to the Coach Create designit-yourself<br />
stand to make it your own. Accesorize with straps,<br />
charms, scarves and the tea rose or Coach link (their latest<br />
chain embellishment), or perhaps with the monogramming<br />
service including a range of tag colour options, 14 foil colours,<br />
initials, numbers and over 100 adorable icons featuring<br />
everything from snowflakes and donuts, to palm trees and<br />
your Chinese zodiac animal. While you linger around for your<br />
new piece to be customised, you may want to take a look at<br />
the weekender luggage for your significant other, a silk scarf for<br />
your bag handle, or an embellished charm. It may just be your<br />
one stop shop for the festive holidays.<br />
Personalize it is available at Coach, Level 1, Mall of the Emirates,<br />
Mirdiff and Avenues, while the Accessorize it elements are<br />
available at all stores<br />
38<br />
EQUITY
TRENDS<br />
LOCAL TALENT<br />
Romy Hourani’s Fall <strong>2017</strong><br />
collection will have you swooning<br />
over crushed velvet and lace<br />
textures and patterns, packing in a<br />
wardrobe with a vintage edge. The<br />
New York-born, Italian-bred<br />
designer relocated to Dubai in<br />
2014, and stems inspiration from<br />
her grandfather, an actor in<br />
Sweden who starred across the<br />
gracious Greta Garbo in one of his<br />
movies. The 15-piece collection<br />
showcases bold jumpsuits, dresses<br />
and sharp silhouettes, with<br />
feminine-led details including softbelted<br />
waists and billowing sleeves<br />
in shades of berry red, classic<br />
checks, leopard print and florals.<br />
Visit romycollection.com<br />
TRADITIONAL CRAFTSMANSHIP<br />
Renowned jewellery designer and artist Nadine Kanso,<br />
has unveiled her latest collection, KHATT. Staying true<br />
to her trademark Arabic letters, the pieces pays homage<br />
to the Arabic phrase which means calligraphy, or line,<br />
signifying a new direction of design from the brand.<br />
Bangles, pendants, rings and ear cuffs can be personalised,<br />
and are available in assorted colours, and variations of<br />
gold and white gold, delicately finished with diamonds,<br />
allowing for self-expression through accessories.<br />
Exclusively available at Sauce Rocks, The Galleria Mall Dubai<br />
THESE BOOTS WERE<br />
MADE FOR WALKING<br />
Men, look no further for a new pair of<br />
boots. Online retailer MR PORTER<br />
have curated an exclusive boot<br />
capsule, The Urban Explorer,<br />
comprising 24 pieces of cold-weather<br />
footwear from 15 renowned brands<br />
including Tom Ford, Berluti, John<br />
Lobb and Grenson, to name a few.<br />
Visit mrporter.com<br />
39<br />
EQUITY
IN STYLE<br />
HOP<br />
talk<br />
The stores to visit for<br />
Syour next shopping haul<br />
CUFF IT<br />
You may have a Royal Oak<br />
or two, so why not get matching cufflinks to<br />
complement your Audemars Piguet<br />
timepiece? The collection entails six new pairs<br />
with the brands signature octagonal shape<br />
and hexagonal screws. Choose from three<br />
in stainless steel with either blue, black or<br />
silver “Tapisserie” pattern, pink gold with blue<br />
or black, and yellow gold with the similar<br />
blue pattern.<br />
Available at all Audemars Piguet boutiques<br />
MONOCHROME AFFAIR<br />
Tory Burch’s latest collection features<br />
a black-and-white scheme with<br />
embroidery for texture and effect.<br />
Feminine-cut jackets, blazers and flair<br />
coats in soft ivory will fill up your winter<br />
wardrobe, while velvet trousers and floorlength<br />
maxis with mother-of-pearl<br />
buttons, beads and sequins take outfits<br />
from day to night, with the addition of<br />
accessories – think, androgynous brogues,<br />
pointed-toe ballerinas and embellished<br />
satchels. Simple, yet sophisticated.<br />
Across all Tory Burch stores<br />
ACCESSORIES<br />
GAME<br />
The Middle East’s largest<br />
department store Robinsons,<br />
hailing from Singapore, is no<br />
stranger to avid shoppers. Now,<br />
there’s even more of a reason to<br />
head there with the launch of the<br />
highly-anticipated hall of fashion<br />
and accessories. The sky-lit space<br />
is home to coveted brands<br />
exclusive to the store, such as<br />
Louis Quatroze and Kwanpen, as<br />
well as niche brands including<br />
Pedro Garcia, Les Petits Joueurs<br />
and Lili Radu, to name a few. If<br />
you haven’t already visited, it’s<br />
time to make a trip ahead of soirée<br />
season. Visit robinsons.me<br />
40<br />
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CAN’T SPOT<br />
THE THREAT?<br />
We can.<br />
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WELLNESS<br />
INDULGE YOURSELF<br />
Tried-and-tested experiences of the month<br />
Need to know:<br />
Dhs1,500,<br />
+971 4 394 7190<br />
The venue: LA VIE CLINIC<br />
The service: Fillers<br />
The verdict: Upon going through the Instagram feeds of<br />
certain models, make-up artists and celebrities, the most<br />
noticeable element is their plump, luscious lips. It seems as<br />
though filled-out eyebrows are now a thing of the past.<br />
When we were given the opportunity to meet with Dr.<br />
Malcolm Paul, a celebrity plastic surgeon from Beverley<br />
Hills, and treat ourselves to literally anything on his service<br />
list, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to obtain that<br />
perfect pout.<br />
La Vie Clinic can best be described as a hybrid between a<br />
salon and a clinic. The minimalist décor in the lobby leads to<br />
clinical-style treatment rooms boasting a soft green tone.<br />
Before the treatment, Dr. Paul and I sat for a casual chat<br />
where he explained the procedure, the fact that he needed<br />
to fill my lower lip a third more than the above, and would<br />
be filling in the entire lip and upper lip area to smoothen out<br />
certain creases. To begin the treatment, local anaesthetic<br />
was applied to numb the area, after which, I was pricked four<br />
times – two near the nose and two slightly below the lip. As<br />
you wait for the numbing effect to kick in, chatty Dr Paul<br />
cracks a few jokes to calm the nerves. Unsurprisingly, I had<br />
plenty to inquire about his career. The main question,<br />
however, was which celebrities had he worked on? “Oh, I’ve<br />
worked on a number of celebrities, but I won’t be able to<br />
disclose any information – neither whom nor what they did,”<br />
he tells us. I soon find out that Dr Paul doesn’t disclose any<br />
patient’s treatments.<br />
Once the area was numbed, the filling process began, with<br />
Dr. Paul injecting hyaluronic acid – a substance naturally present<br />
in the body – to plump the lips and smoothen out folds, which I<br />
previously disregarded as laugh lines. I stopped counting the<br />
number of pricks after it went over ten, but to be honest,<br />
despite what I imagined, it didn’t hurt at all. As he went about<br />
the process, he began chatting about the different procedures<br />
popular in LA such as Buccal fat removal – a surgical facial<br />
contouring procedure – and reconstructing of the jawline.<br />
I ran to the mirror once done to admire my newly defined<br />
lip line and lips. Dr. Paul was kind enough to let me know that I<br />
could come back for a complimentary re-fill to use the<br />
remaining substance that had been name-tagged and kept<br />
aside. We went on to speak about music and quite a few<br />
topics before I learnt about his schedule. He is a busy individual,<br />
flying straight to Dublin (where he is a Clinical Professor of<br />
Surgery), and then back to the US for multiple treatments.<br />
He’s clearly in demand, so make sure to book ahead of his<br />
next visit. As for me, naturally, I stepped out and took a picture<br />
to post on Instagram – clearly, no disclosure needed here.<br />
42<br />
EQUITY
WELLNESS<br />
The venue: HEAVENLY SPA BY WESTIN, WESTIN<br />
DUBAI AL HABTOOR CITY<br />
The service: Couple’s massage<br />
The verdict: Whether you’re stressed or jet-lagged, there<br />
really isn’t anything a therapeutic massage can’t help with.<br />
Heavenly Spa at Westin, truly is heavenly. The sprawling<br />
space features wooden finishing, and an essential oil aroma<br />
that’s hard to pinpoint, nonetheless, calming. We were<br />
shown the mixed and women’s only facilities before<br />
heading to the couple’s suite. A jacuzzi, steam bath, and<br />
thermal lounges make up the space, and are available to<br />
use before and after treatments.<br />
We slipped into our robes, had our feet washed in a<br />
warm pebble bath and made our way to the bed for a deep<br />
tissue massage. We were then asked to choose from three<br />
rocks: love, hope and gratitude, to place under our bed.<br />
The massage began with a focus on our backs and shoulders<br />
to relieve knots and soothe muscles with prolonged<br />
relaxed strokes. The oil was a mixture of cocoa and mango<br />
butter, melted together and drizzled over the skin for a<br />
moisturising treatment.<br />
Soon after, our legs and feet were massaged, followed by<br />
the arms, with similar movements throughout.<br />
Medium pressure was applied all along, making my limbs and<br />
body ache-free. The best part about the treatment and<br />
suites is possibly the stunning view of the canal – try to book<br />
an evening appointment, to take in the vibrant landscape<br />
during daylight and after hours, when it’s all lit up.<br />
V<br />
Need to know:<br />
AED 435 per<br />
person, call<br />
+971 4 437 3300<br />
43<br />
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Bombardier, Global 6000 and Exceptional by Design are trademarks of<br />
Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries. © <strong>2017</strong> Bombardier Inc. All rights reserved.<br />
We didn’t get here by sheer luck. This was deliberate.<br />
An act of craftsmanship and engineering prowess. Decades in the making.<br />
Meeting at the intersection of art and technology. Defying conventions.<br />
Redefining luxury. So when all is said and done,<br />
we’ll know that we achieved something truly extraordinary.<br />
businessaircraft.bombardier.com<br />
44<br />
EQUITY
COLLECTOR'S PIECES<br />
ON OUR RADAR<br />
Striking statement pieces<br />
JEWELLERY<br />
Chantecler<br />
CHERIE NECKLACE<br />
Diamonds are a woman’s best friend.<br />
We know it. But today’s women<br />
don’t just don a tennis bracelet or a<br />
string of diamonds. It’s all about bold,<br />
statement pieces with a hint of<br />
sparkle, albeit over three carats. Enter<br />
Chantecler, a jewel brand from Capri<br />
that offers elegant yet eccentric<br />
pieces, with traits typical to the<br />
stunning Blue Island (Grotto). Most<br />
pieces are created in limited numbers,<br />
with each piece evoking the memory<br />
of ancient goldsmith’s techniques that<br />
hark back to territorial heritage, yet<br />
with a contemporary touch.<br />
So, what do women want? This<br />
Cherie necklace in Turquoise 166.5<br />
grams with white diamonds pave 7.63<br />
carats. Worn with a crisp shirt,<br />
elegant black dress and a power suit,<br />
the turquoise beads inject a pop of<br />
colour, personality and elegance to<br />
the ensemble.<br />
DHS217,380 AT ISTANA JEWELLERS<br />
45<br />
EQUITY
COLLECTOR'S PIECES<br />
TIMEPIECE<br />
Roger Dubuis<br />
Excalibur Aventador S<br />
FOR HIM<br />
Roger Dubuis brings rock ’n’ roll to the otherwise sedated universe of Swiss mechanical watchmaking. Credit in no small part<br />
is owed to its founder, Mr. Roger Dubuis, who founded the brand in the mid-Nineties and who unfortunately passed away<br />
last month. He’s left a rich legacy for the brand that includes avant-garde designs and a reputation for being the only<br />
watchmaker in the world which ensures that 100 per cent of the watches it manufactures are certified with the Geneva seal.<br />
The latest is this Excalibur Aventador S. The 45mm case is made from carbon fibre, the same grade used in the<br />
construction of Lamborghinis. The self-winding mechanical calibre has been skeletonized to reduce the weight of the<br />
timepiece. The power reserve indicator has been cleverly integrated into that skeletonized movement and is visible<br />
between one and two o’clock on the dial. This wristwatch is limited to only 88 pieces and another version with orange<br />
accents (instead of yellow) is limited to just eight pieces. Let’s say the chance of you seeing one on someone’s wrist is as<br />
good as randomly spotting two Lamborghinis in the wild in a single day.<br />
$185,000 (DHS680,000) AT ROGERDUBUIS.COM<br />
46<br />
EQUITY
COLLECTOR'S PIECES<br />
TIMEPIECE<br />
Piaget<br />
Altiplano 900 P<br />
FOR HER<br />
The Piaget Altiplano 900P is the world’s thinnest mechanical watch. It measures in at a slim 3.65mm when fully cased.<br />
To reduce the thickness, the inner caseback serves as the mainplate of the movement. The 900P, although it first<br />
debuted in 2013, wouldn’t have been possible without the invention of the revolutionary Calibre 9P in 1957 that<br />
served as the bedrock for Piaget’s pursuit of ultra-thin watchmaking records.<br />
This year, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of that storied calibre, Piaget has debuted an all-new Altiplano 900P<br />
(ref G0A42110). The 38mm case of this anniversary edition timepiece is made from 18k rose gold. The screws<br />
which are visible on the dial match the colour of the case while the white alligator-skin strap lifts this horological<br />
hero into the realm of elegant dress-watches. The star of the show though is obviously the mechanical winding<br />
movement which has 145 components and boasts a power reserve of 48hours. It’s limited to just 200 pieces. Turn one<br />
on its side, and it disappears.<br />
$38,200 (DHS140,300) AT PIAGET.COM<br />
47<br />
EQUITY
Your secured investment<br />
in Australia through<br />
development.<br />
Minimum Return of 8%<br />
*Conditions apply<br />
Speak with us today.<br />
+ 61 3 9759 9037<br />
alandesafi@paragonpif.com<br />
paragonpif.com<br />
TM<br />
OFFICE 1, LEVEL 2, 1091 STUD ROAD, ROWVILLE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA 3178<br />
48<br />
EQUITY<br />
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL SERVICES LICENSEE 483118 | ABN 27 608 511 593
COLLECTOR'S PIECES<br />
GADGETS<br />
Mako<br />
SLINGSHOT JETBOARD<br />
The shortfin mako shark is widely considered to be the fastest in the world.<br />
At full-throttle, it’s estimated to go between 45 and 60 miles per hour. Its<br />
wakeboard namesake, the carbon-fibre Mako Slingshot Jetboard, is powered<br />
by a fuel-efficient Rotron XT100 engine that tops at about 34 miles per hour.<br />
It’s essentially a 20kg jet-ski, surfboard hybrid that can fit in the trunk of your<br />
car. Just remember you’re still prey when you take to the oceans.<br />
$9,850 (DHS36,200) AT MAKOBOARDSPORTS.COM<br />
49<br />
EQUITY
COLLECTOR'S PIECES<br />
BMW<br />
ACTIVE HYBRID E-BIKE<br />
Don’t be fooled, that bicycle-like contraption<br />
you’re looking at is essentially a hybrid car. The<br />
newest addition to BMW’s Bike Collection<br />
shrewdly integrates a motor and a removable<br />
battery into the aluminium frame that boasts a<br />
range of up to 62 miles on a single charge. The<br />
bike even features four different power modes<br />
starting with Eco (50 per cent boost to pedal<br />
power) all the way to turbo (275 per cent boost<br />
to pedal power). To put it simply, you won’t<br />
break a sweat even while going uphill. The bike<br />
also comes with a headlight, rear LED indicators,<br />
micro USB port and Bluetooth connectivity for<br />
your smartphone because everyone knows you<br />
still need tunes to get pumped.<br />
$4,000 (DHS14,700) AT BMW-ME.COM<br />
Master & Dynamic<br />
MA770<br />
Buben & Zorweg<br />
THE SOLITAIRE VISION WATCH SAFE<br />
We could wax lyrical about this speaker<br />
but we’d rather blow your mind from<br />
the get-go. Master & Dynamic’s 15kg<br />
MA770 is made entirely out of<br />
concrete. Designed by Pritzker<br />
Architecture Prize winner, Sir David<br />
Adjaye, the Wi-Fi and Bluetoothenabled<br />
packs two four-inch woven<br />
Kevlar woofers and a 1.5-inch titanium<br />
tweeter; all obviously custom designed.<br />
Moreover, it even plays nice with<br />
Google Assistant for playlist voice<br />
command. What more do you want<br />
your exclusive speaker to do?<br />
$1,800 (DHS6,700)<br />
AT MASTERDYNAMIC.COM<br />
Watches aren’t cheap. We’re sure you’ve already noticed but just to put things<br />
into perspective, the Piaget Altiplano 900P timepiece we’ve featured this<br />
month would set you back about $38,200. That’s about as much you would<br />
pay as down payment for an Emaar-built three-bedroom apartment at Dubai<br />
Creek Harbour. Given the exorbitant prices, it’s no wonder the German<br />
watch manufacturers want your timepieces safe with its Solitaire Vision Watch<br />
Safe. The stainless steel, precious wood, leather and bulletproof spyglass watch<br />
safe can store up to 46 timepieces which can be automatically wound, if<br />
required. It also provides storage for other accessories like jewellery, cigars and<br />
more. A humidor, bar module and integrated Hi-Fi System are also<br />
included. Even the centrepiece is an ornate word-time tourbillon clock.<br />
PRICE TBA. AVAILABLE AT BUBEN-ZORWEG.COM<br />
50<br />
EQUITY
AUTOMOBILE<br />
CREWE’S<br />
MISSILE<br />
We find out if the third-generation<br />
of the Continental GT is Bentley's finest<br />
grand-tourer yet<br />
By Varun Godinho<br />
They called them the Bentley Boys. The motley bunch of<br />
wealthy playboy racers were a rambunctious lot who<br />
lived like rock stars and drove hell for leather each time<br />
they stepped into their modified Bentley racing machines.<br />
They first won the Le Mans in 1924 and then on four<br />
consecutive occasions between 1927 and 1930. These<br />
were the gentlemen that lent Bentley, which was only a<br />
decade old at the time, its earliest identity as a racing<br />
marque which was primed for the privileged.<br />
It was during the Roaring Twenties when the marque’s<br />
founder Walter Owen Bentley, a Bentley Boy himself,<br />
coined the term “Continental”. All of Bentley’s cars were<br />
built in Cricklewood, North London, and a select few<br />
which were taken over to mainland Europe and personally<br />
tested by W.O. received the continental moniker.<br />
51<br />
EQUITY
COLLECTOR'S PIECES<br />
The continental series were, therefore, flagship<br />
statements of Bentley’s engineering and design prowess.<br />
Applied to several cars over the decades, each new<br />
launch is a cause for celebration. The latest addition is the<br />
all-new 2018 Bentley Continental GT, unveiled at the<br />
Frankfurt Motor Show.<br />
The Continental GT is built on the Porsche Panamera<br />
(remember parent Volkswagen owns both brands) platform.<br />
But this is no copy-paste job. Bentley says that 83 per cent of<br />
the parts have been modified to build the Continental GT.<br />
As a grand-tourer, speed is a prerequisite and so it stripped<br />
around 75 kilos off the outgoing model.<br />
The two-door model still has space for two rear seats as<br />
well. This one’s good to take the family along. The glass is<br />
acoustic-laminated which means you can keep the noise of<br />
traffic outside, and the beats coming from your Bang &<br />
Olufsen 16-speaker sound system inside. Acousticdeadening<br />
material has been added to the underbody of<br />
the car to reduce the road noise and the Pirelli P Zero tires<br />
have an additional layer of sound-absorbing material too.<br />
The ride quality borrows from the Bentayga SUV. It’s<br />
called the Bentley Dynamic Ride and uses a complex set of<br />
algorithms and clever engineering to continuously adjust<br />
the ride height, shock damping, stiffness and grip of the car<br />
to ensure that it drives like a track-honed machine even<br />
during your daily commute. There are four driving modes:<br />
Comfort, Sport, Custom and Bentley. The first three are<br />
self-explanatory. But the last one, and we suggest you keep<br />
it in this mode always, is one that has been specifically<br />
designed and customised by the Bentley team.<br />
The beating heart of the machine, a twin-turbo W12<br />
was first implanted into the Bentayga. In the Continental<br />
GT, it has been tuned to deliver 626hp of power and<br />
900Nm of torque. That kind of power-torque ratio means<br />
that despite a gross weight of around 2,700 kilos, the car<br />
will sprint from 0-100kph in 3.7 seconds and has a top<br />
speed of 333kph. Just make sure the kids are buckled in<br />
tight before you start teasing the throttle. With that much<br />
power and speed though, expect a brilliant set of brakes<br />
too. You get 420mm brakes upfront – the largest fitted<br />
into any production car that can easily scrub off speed.<br />
One of the most striking physical appearances of the<br />
car are those brilliant crystal glass headlights. The 82 LEDs<br />
in each one has been programmed such that it can split<br />
the beam and direct it away from blinding occupants in<br />
oncoming cars, and it will do the same when overtaking<br />
another car as well.<br />
The interiors are as blue-blooded as you’d expect from<br />
a car that operates at this level of the social pecking order.<br />
There are eight wood veneer options to choose from to<br />
kit your cabin with and the hides of precisely nine<br />
Northern European bulls are used inside each car. The<br />
centre console metal can be finished with a Cote<br />
d’Geneve pattern that is used to design the movements<br />
of high-end timepieces from Patek Philippe to Vacheron<br />
Constantin. In the centre of the dashboard, mounted on a<br />
rotisserie, is a panel that flips to reveal a 12.3-inch<br />
infotainment screen on one side and three analogue dials<br />
on the other that sits flush in the dashboard and can be<br />
alternated with the flick of a switch.<br />
Deliveries of the new car begin early next year. Bentley<br />
has created a luxury touring machine that can go the<br />
distance. To anthropomorphise the new Continental GT,<br />
it’s all grown up now.<br />
52<br />
EQUITY
Official Representative for<br />
Bahrain - Kuwait - Oman - Qatar<br />
Saudi Arabia - United Arab Emirates<br />
Mangusta has been the undisputed leader in yachting fun for the past 30 years:<br />
with its strength of character, timeless personal style<br />
and experience in building dreams.<br />
Today, Mangusta is a reference icon, a milestone in yachting fun since 1985,<br />
and now availalbe throughout the GCC, distributed by DG Marine.<br />
Motor City, Control Tower, 13th Floor, Studio 1302, Dubai - UAE<br />
Mobile: +971 50 20 666 11 - Tel: +971 4 450<br />
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EQUITY<br />
Email: greg@mangusta.ae - Website: www.mangusta.ae - Instagram: mangustayachts_me
COLLECTOR'S PIECE<br />
SEA VESSEL<br />
A YACHT FOR ALL<br />
WIDER’s latest launch is the vessel you need for your next summer holiday<br />
By Nicola Monteath<br />
WIDER<br />
130'<br />
The launch of WIDER’s latest 130’ piece – the first novel project since the<br />
acquisition of the shipyard in April by Genting Hong Kong Ltd – and sister to the<br />
award winning WIDER 150’ Bartali and WIDER 165 Cecilia, offers a lavish abode<br />
out at sea apt for travel across borders.<br />
Floor-to-ceiling windows in the main saloon, outdoor living areas for al<br />
fresco gatherings in the sky lounge, and a large waterside beach club, allow<br />
sailing out into the sea to become a family and friends’ affair. Currently being<br />
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EQUITY
COLLECTOR'S PIECE<br />
built at the Ancona based shipyard, this yacht features six cabins for 12 guests,<br />
as well as room for up to seven crew – depending on the owner’s requirements.<br />
Since the interiors naturally make up the yacht, while reflecting the owner’s<br />
lifestyle and requirements, owners have the option to work with WIDER, or<br />
alternatively a designer of their choice, to fit out the space with interiors and<br />
décor of their liking. WIDER’s aesthetically pleasing trademark wings on the<br />
upper deck create space for the sky living area, totaling 85 square metres, and<br />
being high enough above the water to offer panoramic views.<br />
All WIDER yachts have additional space created using the diesel-electric<br />
propulsion system. Eco-conscious minds will be glad to learn that the yacht<br />
produces a low carbon footprint and up to 20 per cent less fuel consumption<br />
than a traditional twin screw configuration – this is the quietest way to power<br />
start a vessel. Additionally, at anchor, the yacht operates silently on battery<br />
power for up to six hours, making nights peaceful and days by the coast relaxing.<br />
VISIT WIDER.COM OR EMAIL SALES@WIDER-YACHTS.COM<br />
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GASTRONOMY<br />
WEEKEND DINING<br />
An experience, brunches and a nocturnal hotspot you can’t miss this month<br />
Nocturnal hotspot<br />
Need to know:<br />
Open daily from 6:30pm.<br />
Call +9714 435 5577<br />
1<br />
J&G STEAKHOUSE<br />
THE ST. REGIS DUBAI, AL HABTOOR CITY<br />
First impression, this American steakhouse is apt for date-night or with a bevy of<br />
carnivores. The restaurant’s setting is similar to a speakeasy, with leather<br />
upholstery, dark wooden finishing, ambient lighting, and trolleys for everything<br />
from cocktails to condiments. Ensconced at a corner of the restaurant, our eyes<br />
quickly met with the martini trolley that rolled over to greet us. I opted for a<br />
fruity concoction, while my partner preferred a strong, dirty mix.<br />
Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s menu is concise, with just enough to help you<br />
decide your meal in minutes. For appetisers, try the tender octopus cooked in a<br />
tangy sauce, and truffle fritters – mini crisp batter-fried cheese balls that arrive hot<br />
and oozing with cheese and truffle. The warm brioche-croissant hybrid allows for<br />
butter to be smothered on and melted with perfection – the best freshly baked<br />
bread we’ve ever come across. For mains, my dining partner and I couldn’t resist<br />
the Australian full-blood Wagyu Kiwami MB9 Sirloin, a beautiful 200g piece cooked<br />
medium (to our preferred temperature). Each morsel had the right amount of<br />
meat and marbling, melting instantly. Before the mains arrive, a knife box is<br />
presented for you to choose your piece. After which, a condiment cart comes<br />
around for you to pick your mustard – try the gingerbread that offers a balance of<br />
sweet and pungent notes – the signature J&G sauce (a rich tamarind blend with<br />
assertive flavours) and pepper sauce. You will need sides to complement the meat,<br />
and we highly suggest the carb-loaded, but delightful, truffle mac and cheese with a<br />
crunch coating, and grilled asparagus and lemon zest, for a hint of something green.<br />
End with a glass of smooth, full-bodied 20-year old port and dense chocolate<br />
fondant with a perfect crust and melting chocolate centre.<br />
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GASTRONOMY<br />
2<br />
LAPITA<br />
DUBAI PARKS AND RESORTS<br />
While brunches and staycations might be two very different<br />
activities for many, Lapita at the Dubai Parks and Resorts<br />
offers an amalgamation of the two, calling it a daycation.<br />
Kick off the day with pool access from 9am and when noon<br />
rolls around, and you’ve perfected your tan, make your way<br />
to the extensive buffet. The Polynesian-themed brunch has<br />
re-opened, showcasing a sushi bar that covers all bases with<br />
urumaki, sashimi, nigiri and maki. The oysters are fresh as<br />
ever, and taste as though they were plucked from the ocean<br />
and placed onto your plate. As you make your way through<br />
the indoors buffet area, you’ll notice an assortment of<br />
cheese, Indian vegetarian corner, candy floss station and a<br />
dessert zone offering cookie crumbles, a chocolate fountain,<br />
macarons and several frozen treats.<br />
Out on the lawn is where the live grilling action takes place.<br />
Help yourself to beef, chicken and seafood, as well as regional<br />
specialities that tips its hat to the Indian sub-continent and<br />
Thailand. It’s here where a three-piece band livens up the<br />
venue. At around 3pm, the staff and chefs covered with face<br />
paint, face off against each other performing the haka for<br />
guests. Positioned as a family brunch, there are plenty of<br />
activities for children including a special indoor play area, where<br />
the staff at hand are keen to keep children occupied. There’s also<br />
a separate kid’s buffet section with light nibbles including burgers,<br />
pasta, popcorn and cupcakes. If you aren’t ready to leave, just<br />
grab a float and head back to the pool – just as we did.<br />
Family Brunch<br />
Need to know: Every Friday. The daycation<br />
including soft beverages is Dhs195, with in-house<br />
beverages is Dhs295 and children below the age of 12<br />
are charged Dhs95. Call +971 4810 9421<br />
Indulgent frenzy<br />
3<br />
CAFÉ BELGE<br />
RITZ CARLTON DIFC<br />
Great Gatsby comes to mind when you step into this elegant<br />
Belgian restaurant, with a Twenties vibe prevalent throughout.<br />
The Granch Brunch commences at the sumptuous seafood<br />
station, where you can fill your plates with sushi, freshly<br />
shucked oysters, blinis with caviar and ceviche prepared on<br />
the spot and served in a pineapple. Across the seafood<br />
station, help yourself to eggs cooked to your liking with freshly<br />
baked bread, croissants and quiche. Outdoors, tuck into a<br />
wide selection of comforting dumplings, before biting into<br />
steak with a side of Yorkshire pudding and gravy, and grills<br />
including shrimp, juicy lobster, tender meaty lamb chops and<br />
chicken tandoori. Our favourites were the Turkish chicken<br />
doner, moules (mussels) in white wine sauce, and the fish<br />
and chips – brought to your table in little steel buckets<br />
complete with torn-out newspaper. Thai curries with<br />
chicken and vegetables are also on hand for those who<br />
want to dowse a bowl of steamed rice in spicy goodness.<br />
Walk towards the gin-and-tonic station, and you will notice<br />
a foie gras stand and cheese section - try the comte, truffle<br />
cheese and brie with crackers. Don’t be surprised when you<br />
see yourself in another room all together, the dessert station.<br />
A sweet aroma fills the air, and you are surrounded by<br />
desserts, cakes and puddings in all four corners. We absolutely<br />
loved tucking into warm berry cobbler with custard, the<br />
classic Opera cake slices, mango pudding, donut from a stand,<br />
and ras malai from the decadent Indian treats. Make sure you<br />
pace yourself, as there’s a lot of ground to cover here.<br />
Need to know:<br />
The brunch takes place from 12:30pm, priced from<br />
Dhs295 for the soft drinks package, to Dhs595<br />
including champagne. Call +971 4 372 2323.<br />
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GASTRONOMY<br />
One-of-a-kind<br />
4<br />
THE EXPERIENCE BY REIFOTHMAN<br />
THE H HOTEL<br />
We may sound a little biased saying this, but Play is hands-down amongst our<br />
top five restaurants in town. When we heard of The Experience, an intimate<br />
dinner with chef Reif Othman in a homely, cosy setting, with a menu based<br />
upon whatever he feels like creating – much like our home dinner scenarios –<br />
we knew we had to try it. The Experience is sited just above the restaurant and<br />
truly does feel like you’ve entered an apartment, with stained wallpaper, large<br />
lighting structures, comfortable armchairs, sweeping views of old Dubai, and an<br />
open kitchen and dining seating arrangement. We sat with a lovely French<br />
couple, making it seem as though we were invited to chef Othman's house for<br />
a dinner party.<br />
The evening began with freshly baked bread and amuse bouche followed<br />
by Wagyu steak with a generous spread of anchovy paste and shiso cress.<br />
We aren’t the biggest fans of anchovy, however this tasted a lot like tuna<br />
and was quite flavour-packed. Up next, was Wagyu belly, followed by a<br />
fresh piece of himachi sashimi. Other dishes featured a succulent piece of<br />
meat – of course, the highest grade possible – and a single serving of ravioli<br />
with an asbolutely tantalising sauce to complement. Desert was a tangy<br />
passion fruit delight, ending on a light citrus note. Dining here is definintely<br />
unlike your run-off-the-mill experience. Here, the ingredients steal the<br />
limelight, with chef Othman sourcing only the best, playing around with<br />
produce and dishes in the kitchen to curate a beautiful meal. As we rested<br />
back and took a deep breath, chef Othman handed us each a goodie bag<br />
filled with a chilli condiment and Zwilling J.A. Henckels products – a nice<br />
parting gift.<br />
Need to know:<br />
To reserve a table,<br />
call +971 4 336 4444<br />
58<br />
EQUITY
TRAVEL<br />
A HOME AWAY<br />
FROM HOME<br />
You want to get away from the humdrum of the city. However, in complete<br />
privacy and with a homely setting that offers all the facilities of a lavish stay.<br />
What do you do? Visit these celebrity-loved residences of course<br />
59<br />
EQUITY
TRAVEL<br />
A<br />
well-rested getaway<br />
doesn’t necessarily have<br />
to be in a formal or<br />
corporate environment.<br />
High-thread-count sheets, fluffy robes<br />
and butler services are available at<br />
residences too. Here, we look at two<br />
trending escapes in Asia.<br />
FOREST HILLS, TALA<br />
There isn’t much to say about the<br />
quaint village of Taraste in Tala, the<br />
Raigad district in Maharashtra, India.<br />
Perhaps that is the village’s greatest<br />
quality. Located about 72 kilometres<br />
from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji<br />
International Airport, the village isn’t<br />
well-known or nearly as crowded. Of<br />
late, however, the village has seen a<br />
spike in the number of visiting<br />
UHNWIs. And there’s only one reason<br />
it can be attributed to, the luxurious<br />
eco-friendly resort: Forest Hills, Tala.<br />
Perched on the edge of a plateau<br />
adjacent to a hill slope, the 160-acre<br />
treetop property is surrounded by<br />
lush green forests and a meandering<br />
river and is about three kilometres<br />
away from the Kuda caves - the<br />
twenty-six caves that were excavated<br />
in first century B.C were home to<br />
Buddhist monks. That’s not why the<br />
resort is attracting its distinct clientele<br />
though, that has more to do with the<br />
resort’s exclusivity.<br />
The getaway only allows for nine<br />
accommodation options, with a<br />
maximum of four people for each.<br />
These are split between opulent and<br />
carefully designed cottages and<br />
treehouses. The pick of the bunch is<br />
the Glass House – a treehouse<br />
enclosed by glass and wood. Built on<br />
two levels, interconnected by a spiral<br />
staircase, the 2,000 sq ft treehouse<br />
offers unobstructed, panoramic views<br />
of the surrounding mountains on one<br />
side and the dense forest and valley on<br />
the other. Each of the two levels come<br />
with a private balcony and a cosy sit<br />
out. The composition of partly white,<br />
partly reflective and transparent<br />
surfaces within a wooden framework<br />
animate and lighten up the space. The<br />
design elements question conventional<br />
definitions of exterior and interior<br />
while reinterpreting notions of privacy<br />
and exposure.<br />
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TRAVEL<br />
Need to know:<br />
From $550 per night at the Glass<br />
House. For more information<br />
visit foresthillstala.com<br />
The other accommodation options<br />
include the Blue Butterfly – a 2,000 sq. ft.<br />
villa that features quirky design elements<br />
and an impressive array of artwork, the<br />
Pink Parrot – that features relatively<br />
vibrant interiors, the Woodpecker – an<br />
800 sq. ft. cottage made entirely out of<br />
wood, the Camel House – an 800 sq. ft.<br />
house featuring a private garden, rear<br />
lawn and a glass-bathroom overlooking<br />
the stars, the Tree Hopper – a 1,200 sq.<br />
ft. cottage built on wooden stilts<br />
overlooking the valley, the Tree Hugger<br />
– a 400 sq. ft. treehouse featuring a<br />
private balcony, and the Mud Hut built<br />
completely out of eco-friendly<br />
biodegradable material.<br />
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EQUITY
TRAVEL<br />
Need to know:<br />
From $4,410 per night,<br />
visit amillabeachvillaresidences.com<br />
AMILLA FUSHI'S BEACH<br />
RESIDENCES, VILLAS AND<br />
ESTATES<br />
Maldives never disappoints. And if<br />
Leonardo DiCaprio is a fan – he<br />
stayed here in July for the 1OAK<br />
pop-up party – then so are we. The<br />
array of extravagant hotels, culinary<br />
offerings, white sandy beach, and<br />
element of privacy in Maldives, is<br />
comparable to no other archipelago.<br />
With this in mind, Amilla Fushi's Beach<br />
Villa Residences capture the<br />
essence of island-living,<br />
welcoming guests to a<br />
picturesque paradise with<br />
secluded and chic residential<br />
options. Sited over the<br />
shimmering waters, and amongst<br />
lush treetops, the multi-bedroom<br />
accommodation poses as an<br />
advantage for large families, bevy<br />
of friends and UHNWIs looking<br />
for a unique setting to unwind.<br />
Comprised of eight residences,<br />
it features six four-bedroom villas,<br />
one six-bedroom estate (The<br />
Amilla Villa Estate), and one eightbedroom<br />
residence (The Great Beach<br />
Villa). Each and every whim is catered<br />
for by a private butler, gourmet chef,<br />
and a katheeb (house-master), who are<br />
on call for everything from a special<br />
request for breakfast, to drawing you a<br />
soothing bath or booking an excursion.<br />
Most villas boast a private swimming<br />
pool, just steps away from the pristine<br />
sandy beach. The Great Beach Villa<br />
Residence, however, sets itself apart<br />
with a 20-metre lagoon pool, complete<br />
with a beachside hammock for a siesta<br />
and afternoon read. While the adults<br />
snooze and/or explore marine life –<br />
Manta Rays, Guitar Shark and<br />
Hawksbill turtles can be spotted<br />
nearby – children can be placed in<br />
expert hands, with babysitters, or<br />
head to Sultan’s Village Kids Club to<br />
keep entertained with a selection of<br />
books, DVDs, PlayStation, and board<br />
games.<br />
The one element that makes a<br />
house, a home, is a fully-equipped<br />
kitchen. Here, the pantry is stocked to<br />
your liking and you can order anything<br />
you desire from the two extensive<br />
Providore (grocery) lists. Premium<br />
meats, cheese and gourmet items are<br />
available to cook up a hearty meal for<br />
family and friends. When you’re<br />
starting to feel peckish, opt for the<br />
quintessentially British tradition of<br />
afternoon tea, or pre-dinner cocktail<br />
snacks. If you do want to head out for<br />
a bite, dine at Bazaar, a casual eatery<br />
showcasing delectable Japanese<br />
Izakaya dining with a Latin dash. For<br />
beverages and nibbles, The Emperor<br />
Beach Club and the Wine Shop &<br />
Cellar Door don’t disappoint, with an<br />
extensive wine list, charcuterie and<br />
cheese assortment to impress.<br />
Once every activity has been ticked<br />
off your list, visit Javvu Spa, a sanctuary<br />
featuring ocean-front sauna and steam<br />
rooms, and the Bodyism programme,<br />
which nourishes, transforms and heals<br />
your body from inside and out.<br />
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EQUITY
TRAVEL TALES<br />
JETSETTER JOURNEYS<br />
Explore the latest in experiences, tours and culinary breaks<br />
PARADISE FOR TWO<br />
Babymoon packages are<br />
on the rise, with couples<br />
flocking to a romantic<br />
destination for a quick<br />
getaway, before the<br />
arrival of their little one.<br />
And where better to<br />
celebrate than in Paris?<br />
Mandarin Oriental, Paris<br />
has launched the ultimate<br />
Babymoon Spa Break, including accommodation,<br />
couple’s spa treatments, breakfast for two,<br />
aqua-gym lesson and a bottle of Skinhaptic<br />
massage oil to ease tension in the muscles and<br />
make this sojourn as relaxing as possible.<br />
From Dhs5,700 per night,<br />
visit mandarinoriental.com<br />
NATURE-LED VACATION<br />
Activity and greenery enthusiasts will enjoy a stay at the<br />
Giardino Ascona in Ticino, Switzerland, that has recently<br />
welcomed its Power Guide (Activities Concierge). The<br />
local expert will train, guide and coach guests on the<br />
journey and sporting adventures they choose to set off on.<br />
The programme is applicable to all age groups, with<br />
activities including golf, hiking, biking, paragliding, Nordic<br />
walking and boat trips.<br />
giardino-ascona.ch<br />
SPA ESCAPE<br />
On your next visit to Turkey, stop by Caresse, Bodrum for<br />
an afternoon well spent at Spa Caresse – recently named<br />
the top Luxury Destination Spa at the World Luxury Spa &<br />
Restaurant Awards <strong>2017</strong>. The sea-facing spa is often<br />
reserved for private parties, renowned treatments such as<br />
Shirodhara (an Ayurveda treatment) and Caresse Rose<br />
Experience, which begins with a scrub, followed by a rose<br />
soap foam massage, mud body mask, rose hair cleanse and<br />
soothing rose ice ritual. Which one will you pick?<br />
caresse.com<br />
STATEMENT BUY<br />
Need a new suitcase? Look no further than the first,<br />
and only, hard-sided suitcase collection in the world<br />
with CX expansion-compression technology. It allows<br />
for up to 25 per cent more packing space and can be<br />
pressed down, once closed, to its original size. If you’re<br />
convinced, the new Caramel & Cream Sympatico<br />
collection is a stylish one to choose from, with three<br />
sizes: carry-on, medium and large, and matching bag<br />
styles – shopping tote, weekender and backpack.<br />
The carry-on suitcase is available from Dhs2,093<br />
at johnlewis.com, Selfridges.com and Harrods<br />
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EQUITY
THE FAIRWAY<br />
HIT the LINKS<br />
Discover Al Hamra Golf Club nestled in the Northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah<br />
A<br />
quick 55-minute drive from Dubai takes you<br />
away from the hustle and bustle to the peace<br />
and tranquility of the northernmost of the<br />
UAE’s seven Emirates, Ras Al Khaimah. The Al<br />
Hamra Village development includes a golf course, marina,<br />
residential complex, retail outlets and five-star hotel,<br />
Hilton Al Hamra Beach & Golf Resort.<br />
Al Hamra Golf Club, designed by Swiss architect Peter<br />
Harradine, takes many of its design features from<br />
traditional links’ courses, meandering around four interconnected<br />
open water lagoons merging seamlessly with<br />
the water of the Arabian Gulf. The Arabian Gulf comes<br />
into play on the majority of the 18 holes. The Par 72<br />
Championship course lends itself perfectly to all levels of<br />
64<br />
EQUITY
THE FAIRWAY<br />
players, providing the fledgling novices and<br />
accomplished players with an entertaining and<br />
interesting challenge. There are five varying tee options<br />
on each hole, so you can enjoy a round of golf no<br />
matter your experience level. In order to beat the heat<br />
or the region's short daylight hours, a must try for any<br />
golfing enthusiast is night golf with holes one to seven,<br />
17 and 18; making up a composite floodlit course to be<br />
played after sundown.<br />
The nine hole par 3 Academy course with holes<br />
ranging from 60 yards to 110, features a salt-water lake<br />
designed to test even the novice golfer's nerve. With<br />
its standalone clubhouse, it offers any level of golfer<br />
the perfect place to hone their skills from the extensive<br />
driving range, short-game area and floodlit course. Of<br />
the two golf courses in Ras Al Khaimah, this one is<br />
more expensive, but it's also incredibly maintained.<br />
Make sure to pack plenty of balls, as wayward shots will<br />
be punished.<br />
The two holes that are a must are the 10th and 18th<br />
hole. Hole 10 is the start of Al Hamra’s very own Amen<br />
Corner. A long par 4 normally played into the prevailing<br />
wind. A well-struck drive is required to either enable<br />
the approach to the green in two or setup a positional<br />
shot for the green in three. A huge bunker protects the<br />
front and right sides. This hole truly deserves its stroke<br />
index of one. Hole 18m, on the other hand, needs you<br />
to bring your A-game. This intimidating par 5 is not<br />
only elongated in length, but with the lagoon bordering<br />
the entire hole down the right, is a slicer’s nightmare.<br />
The large three-tiered green is surrounded by bunkers<br />
and will be a welcomed sight once the lagoon, wind<br />
and fairway bunkers have been challenged.<br />
Golf is not the only thing on offer, however, with its<br />
two modern clubhouses entailing a golf academy,<br />
gymnasium, fully-stocked golf shop and a range of<br />
dining options including Pesto (modern Italian eatery),<br />
The Bay Sports bar – considered by many as the 19th<br />
hole – Belgian Beer Café and Maison Mathis.<br />
Those who want to try something a little different,<br />
the club has recently launched foot-golf. Played on the<br />
par 3 academy course, the aim is to kick the football<br />
into oversized holes, around the course, providing fun<br />
for family and friends or even corporate gatherings.<br />
WINTER RATES<br />
October1 - December 31 <strong>2017</strong><br />
Championship Course<br />
PEAK RATE<br />
(Friday, Saturday & Public Holidays)<br />
18 Holes<br />
9 Holes<br />
GUEST Dhs695<br />
UAE RESIDENT Dhs590<br />
ACADEMY PAR 3 COURSE<br />
Adult (1 round) Dhs100<br />
FOOT GOLF<br />
Adult (1 round)<br />
Dhs60<br />
KID (1 ROUND) 12 -18<br />
Dhs50<br />
65<br />
EQUITY
Wealth has its challenges.<br />
We will help you protect,<br />
grow and pass it on.<br />
Experts in advising the<br />
wealthy located in<br />
Abu Dhabi, Dubai,<br />
London and 10 other<br />
offices around the globe.<br />
Murray North<br />
Partner, Private Client<br />
London<br />
E: murray.north@blplaw.com<br />
T: +44 (0)20 3400 4545<br />
Ibrahim Elsadig<br />
Partner, Head of Corporate (UAE)<br />
Dubai<br />
E: ibrahim.elsadig@blplaw.com<br />
T: +971 (0)4 511 9718<br />
www.blplaw.com
HOTEL REVIEW<br />
The Hilton brand is known worldwide and, as<br />
such, brings with it a level of expectation.<br />
Hilton Al Hamra Beach & Golf Resort, is sited<br />
between the Al Hajar Mountains and Ras Al<br />
Khaimah’s seafront. The family-friendly resort flanks a 500<br />
-metre sandy beach, where you can indulge in water<br />
activities or bask in the sun.<br />
The property comprises two swimming pools, landscaped<br />
gardens, and plenty of sun loungers, with the resort being a<br />
low-level building. Stylish and well-equipped rooms invite<br />
you to relax after an active day either spent golfing (read<br />
about it on page 64), indulging in the wide range of<br />
watersport activities, or spent shopping in one of the<br />
nearby malls. All rooms are en suite with a neutral grey<br />
tone, crisp white sheets on plush beds, and hints of sea<br />
tones that lend an airy vibe.<br />
STAY<br />
OF<br />
THE<br />
MONTH<br />
Escape to Hilton Al Hamra Beach<br />
& Golf Resort for a restful stay<br />
coupled with a round of golf<br />
67<br />
EQUITY
HOTEL REVIEW<br />
Need to know:<br />
The suites are available<br />
from Dhs500+ going up<br />
to the Presidential Suite,<br />
being the highest in the<br />
category at Dhs2,500++<br />
Visit hilton.com<br />
When it’s time to unwind, the Fitness by Hilton, Al<br />
Hamra Spa, is the place to flock to. Therapeutic<br />
treatments and reflexology ease away stress, prepping<br />
you for a relaxing stay ahead.<br />
DINE<br />
Gastronomic options are designed with guest<br />
satisfaction in mind. The day begins with a hearty<br />
breakfast at Al Shamal, inspired by the local Middle<br />
Eastern street markets, almost mimicking a souq. Grab<br />
a plate and top it up with waffles, eggs made-to-order,<br />
fresh fruit and pastries.<br />
From business brunches to pre-dinner drinks and<br />
everything in between, the options at Hilton cater to<br />
all palates. Head to the Lobby Lounge for your dose of<br />
caffeine, Le Chalet for the beachside eatery, Al Jazeera<br />
for Lebanese food and shisha by the oceanfront, or<br />
Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Lounge for Polynesian flavours.<br />
We dined at the latter, relishing lamb cutlets, dim sum,<br />
prawns and pies for dinner, accompanied by creative<br />
cocktails. British pub, Scirocco, is worth a visit too.<br />
British grub is on the menu, with fish and chips, and<br />
bangers and mash being the highlights. Live music sets<br />
the tone for the evening, making it an entertaining<br />
nightcap venue.<br />
GET ACTIVE<br />
Whether you are conducting business, keeping up with<br />
a fitness routine or looking to spend quality time with<br />
your family, this resort is here to make the most of<br />
your stay by offering the services you need, the<br />
amenities you expect, and the extras you deserve<br />
Apart from adventurous water activities including<br />
snorkelling and scuba diving, on-site options include a<br />
state-of-the art gym, and a Peter Harradine-designed<br />
18-hole championship golf course, merely 100 metres<br />
away from the hotel.<br />
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69<br />
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REAL ESTATE<br />
SUITE<br />
LIFE<br />
Campbell Gray Hotels makes<br />
its entrance into Jordan with<br />
residences worth calling home<br />
By Nicola Monteath<br />
If you find yourself heading down to<br />
Jordan more often than you can imagine<br />
– it has become quite the hub for<br />
technology, startups, and long-weekend<br />
getaways – the launch of this property<br />
development is perhaps an investment<br />
worth considering. Campbell Gray<br />
Hotel is at the helm of this mixed<br />
development and encompasses a<br />
reputation that precedes itself. The<br />
owner-operator and international hotel<br />
management company focuses on<br />
luxury hotels and residences, with a foot<br />
in key markets across Europe and the<br />
Middle East. And where better to set up<br />
luxury residences than a trending<br />
hotspot such as Amman? Jordan has<br />
long been the destination of choice,<br />
especially for those living in the GCC,<br />
due to its proximity.<br />
Campbell Gray Living Amman<br />
residences showcases luxury homes<br />
with a hotel-style touch. The region’s<br />
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EQUITY
REAL ESTATE<br />
most sophisticated development<br />
offers one- two- and three-bedroom<br />
apartments ideal for couples and<br />
families. Rich hardwood oak is<br />
prevalent throughout the open-plan<br />
living, kitchen and dining areas, and<br />
apartments are available either semior<br />
fully-furnished, with bespoke pieces<br />
from internationally established<br />
interior architecture and design firm,<br />
Martin Brundnizki Design Studio.<br />
Those who enjoy whiling away with<br />
a book will love the built-in solid oak<br />
library in the living room. On the<br />
other hand, gadget lovers can make<br />
use of Lutron’s smart home<br />
automation system that controls<br />
everything at the touch of a button.<br />
The bedrooms are in a league of its<br />
own, with bespoke Hermès and silk<br />
wallpaper that adorn the walls,<br />
exuding elegance the minute you<br />
step in. Duravit washbasins,<br />
Dornbracht taps, and cast-stone<br />
flooring accompany bespoke ceramic<br />
tiles in the bathrooms.<br />
Art plays an integral role within the<br />
interiors of a development, and here,<br />
works of renowned artists such as<br />
Huw Williams, can be spotted<br />
alongside pieces from local artists.<br />
Since Jordan experiences lows of<br />
around eight degrees during winter,<br />
with average highs of around 25<br />
degrees in July (their hottest month<br />
of the year), al fresco gatherings can<br />
be hosted throughout the year. The<br />
rooftop area comprises of a heated<br />
infinity-edge pool, private cabanas,<br />
teak loungers, fire-pits and a jacuzzi,<br />
resembling hotels and resorts<br />
worldwide. Couples and families can<br />
enjoy a restful opulent stay in<br />
Amman, while enjoying the best the<br />
city has to offer.<br />
Visit campbellgrayliving.com<br />
for more information<br />
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ENTREPRENEUR<br />
WHAT DOES INVESTING<br />
IN YOURSELF MEAN<br />
TO YOU?<br />
Spending time and money<br />
pursuing interests that will<br />
improve your quality of life,<br />
whether it’s upskilling yourself<br />
professionally or taking a class<br />
that will help you appreciate the<br />
things you enjoy even more.<br />
MOST RECENT PURCHASE<br />
I splurged at Le Clos yesterday<br />
on a magnum of Pol Roger<br />
champagne, a magnum of<br />
Bordeaux from Chateau<br />
Potensac and a bottle of Domain<br />
J.A. Ferret Pouilly-Fuisse.<br />
ONE THING MOST<br />
PEOPLE DON’T KNOW<br />
I have Ojibway heritage<br />
and a forklift operating license.<br />
THE BEST GRAPE REGION?<br />
That’s like asking a mother to tell<br />
which of her kids is her favourite.<br />
I try to drink different wines all<br />
the time to keep my palate<br />
sharp, but my preferred regions<br />
are the ones that I have been to,<br />
and have special memories of. I<br />
love Central Otago, New<br />
Zealand, where I lived for about<br />
six months snowboarding,<br />
working in a lakeside fine-dining<br />
restaurant, knocking back great<br />
Pinot Noir and refreshing white<br />
wines, and staring at some of the<br />
most picturesque landscapes I’ve<br />
ever seen. I also love Margaret<br />
River where I lived working in a<br />
cellar door and in a few<br />
restaurants. I spent my free time<br />
cellar door hopping, jogging<br />
enjoying seeing kangaroos (and<br />
gorgeous surfer guys) in their<br />
natural habitat.<br />
GET TO KNOW…<br />
LINDSAY<br />
TRIVERS<br />
Founder of<br />
The Tasting Class<br />
(TheTastingClass.com)<br />
MORNING ROUTINE<br />
I get up with my ‘baby alarm’ around 6am, check<br />
social media, make a coffee and hang out with<br />
my daughter for a few hours before getting<br />
ready for work.<br />
TYPICAL WORK DAY<br />
Never the same! Some days are filled with<br />
coordinating tastings for private clients and<br />
public tastings, and those have been frequent<br />
recently, as I’ve become an approved<br />
provider of WSET (Wine & Spirit Education<br />
Trust) courses and qualifications. Some days<br />
are spent meeting with various partners,<br />
whether that’s venues that want to host our<br />
tastings or brands that want to collaborate<br />
with us. On the day of a tasting, I will brush up<br />
on the lesson I will deliver, follow up with<br />
RSVPs, pack up whatever aids are needed,<br />
head to the venue early to set up, teach a<br />
wine lesson and schmooze.<br />
HOW DID YOU GET HERE?<br />
I have pretty much always worked in wine or<br />
hospitality. Prior to launching The Tasting<br />
Class I was a beer sommelier at a high-end<br />
Belgian restaurant in Dubai, and before that I<br />
worked at Decanter magazine helping them<br />
run the world’s largest wine competition.<br />
BEST PIECE OF ADVICE<br />
Find something<br />
you love doing and<br />
you’ll never work a<br />
day in your life<br />
THE BEST DHS1,000 YOU<br />
HAVE EVER SPENT?<br />
It was probably a contribution to<br />
the airline ticket from my home<br />
in Ontario, Canada, to Banff,<br />
Alberta, Canada, which is where<br />
I started learning about wine,<br />
and where I met my husband.<br />
TRAVEL FOR A MEAL…<br />
Years ago, my husband and I<br />
booked a round the world<br />
ticket. While in Mendoza,<br />
Argentina, I was introduced to a<br />
black sausage called morcilla.<br />
Don’t Google what it’s made<br />
from, just eat it if you ever get<br />
the chance. I’ve struggled to<br />
find it since leaving, so if I got<br />
the chance, I would head back<br />
to the winery I used to work at<br />
there, and tuck into a full Asado<br />
between the vines – like old<br />
times – with lots of morcilla and<br />
Malbec. I arrived in Argentina in<br />
skinny jeans and left in stretchy<br />
pants – I regret nothing.<br />
DUBAI HOTSPOTS<br />
Call me biased but the best one<br />
is definitely the Wine and Cheese<br />
Pairing Class that Jones The<br />
Grocer, Dusit Thani, runs with<br />
The Tasting Class every month.<br />
High quality cheese, classic wine<br />
styles perfectly matched and a<br />
lesson on what’s so special about<br />
both the wine and the cheese.<br />
FooDiva (Samantha Wood)<br />
keeps us up to date with the<br />
latest and greatest places to enjoy<br />
fine-dining when we accompany<br />
her as the resident sommelier on<br />
the Dine Around Dubai Dinner<br />
Experiences she runs. Peyote and<br />
Zahira are two of the latest greats<br />
I’ve enjoyed immensely. A classic<br />
go-to that I can always count<br />
on for consistent quality and a<br />
welcoming, buzzy atmosphere<br />
is BOCA.<br />
72<br />
EQUITY
TO BREAK THE RULES,<br />
YOU MUST FIRST MASTER<br />
THEM.<br />
THE VALLÉE DE JOUX. FOR MILLENNIA A HARSH,<br />
UNYIELDING ENVIRONMENT; AND SINCE 1875 THE<br />
HOME OF AUDEMARS PIGUET, IN THE VILLAGE OF<br />
LE BRASSUS. THE EARLY WATCHMAKERS WERE<br />
SHAPED HERE, IN AWE OF THE FORCE OF NATURE<br />
YET DRIVEN TO MASTER ITS MYSTERIES THROUGH<br />
THE COMPLEX MECHANICS OF THEIR CRAFT. STILL<br />
TODAY THIS PIONEERING SPIRIT INSPIRES US TO<br />
CONSTANTLY CHALLENGE THE CONVENTIONS OF<br />
FINE WATCHMAKING.<br />
+41 21 642 32 66 | AUDEMARSPIGUET.COM<br />
ROYAL OAK<br />
PERPETUAL<br />
CALENDAR<br />
IN YELLOW GOLD<br />
AUDEMARS PIGUET BOUTIQUES:<br />
THE DUBAI MALL | MALL OF THE EMIRATES<br />
73<br />
EQUITY
Dubai’s only high-end real estate and interior design company,<br />
setting extraordinary records in the marketing, designing and<br />
selling of the most important residential properties.<br />
Office 804-806, Arenco Tower, Dubai Media City | 04 432 79 72 | www.luxhabitat.ae