Peter J. Cooper’s Weblog

November 10, 2008

Profits crash 88% at Emirates in first-half to $77m

Filed under: Aviation, Hotels, UAE Stocks — peterjcooper @ 5:05 pm

emiratesa3801High oil prices sent Emirates Airline’s net profit into a tailspin in the first half of its financial year with a fall of 88 per cent to $77 million. But at least the largest Middle East carrier stayed in the black.

‘The first half of the year has been very tough for the airline industry, with record fuel prices forcing many carriers to shut shops or consolidate,’ chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said in a statement. ‘Emirates has worked hard to manage the impact of high fuel prices on our unit costs, while continuing to grow our business.’

Fuel costs came in higher than budgeted by $469 million. This will clearly be a blow to full-year profits. In the last full year to March 31, Emirates reported a 62 per cent surge in net profit to $1.37 billion. The airline now has 121 aircraft, including two of the new superjumbo Airbus A380s.

Terminal three

Emirates is currently in a massive expansion phase, with a huge order book of aircraft. Its dedicated new $4.5 billion Terminal Three at Dubai International Airport opened last month, with a total lack of problems as this correspondent can testify from experience last weekend. Even the self-service baggage check-in actually works.

The cost of aviation fuel has plummeted over the past month and so the impact of high fuel costs is temporary. However, the global financial crisis is now hitting premium class travel and starting to impact total passenger numbers.

The timing is not good for an expanding carrier but the Gulf market is somewhat isolated from the global financial crisis, and Emirates has strong brand loyalty to call upon.
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October 18, 2008

Visit Rome to connect with the past

Filed under: Hotels, Restaurants, Travel — peterjcooper @ 1:08 pm


Rome is a city blessed with a myriad of attractions from the ancient ruins of the forum to complete buildings from antiquary like the Pantheon, world-beating museums and the very best designer shopping. The Storico Centro district is also amazingly compact with the Vatican City and the basilica of St Peter’s as a natural extension.

Emirates Airline has direct flights to Rome and there is a fast train link to the centre, or a taxi at around $150 return. But the city does not have many truly five-star hotels and apartment rental can offer a higher standard of accommodation.

An Internet search turned up our one-bedroom apartment in the Via Cartari owned by the friendly Giampaolo whose growing family has now moved to something larger outside the centre. It is a useful tip in choosing an apartment to always look for a place in which the owner previously lived.

Five star apartment

This generally means a high standard of fit-out with genuine home comforts. We were very lucky. Giampaolo’s 650 sq ft apartment’s interior had been fashioned by a designer to include a built-in hifi and flat-screen TV, custom-made furniture, a four-poster bed, quality kitchen and marble bathroom.

Moreover, the location was excellent being about mid-point between the Pantheon and the Vatican City, meaning that all Rome’s top attractions are just a maximum of 20 minutes walk away or an inexpensive taxi ride if you are feeling tired or lazy.

Arab visitors love to join Italians on their evening promenades through the city. Everything is open late in Rome, and al fresco dining at restaurants is normal. It does pay to consult a guide-book however, as restaurant prices do not always reflect the quality of the food. Giampaolo left us a few good restaurant suggestions, and business cards for such must eats as ‘the best ice cream in the world’.

Even those who are not normally impressed by architecture and culture tend to fall for Rome. Whatever your religion the cathedral of St Peter’s in the Vatican City is arguably the world’s most richly decorated building, and we climbed to the top of the dome, albeit paying a small supplement for a lift up to half-way.

Historical city

This is, of course, relatively modern history for Rome. Visit the coliseum and imperial forum and you are transported back 2,000 years. Better still is the Pantheon which is the same age and whose magnificent concrete dome has survived intact, thanks mainly to its conversion to a church in 600AD.

To see a full-size imperial bronze statue on horse-back, the only one to survive from antiquary, visit the superb Capitoline Museum, one of the oldest in the world and founded 500 years ago and marvel at Marcus Aurelius.

For the work more modern masters like Michelangelo and Bernini then you need to organize a tour around some of the 900 churches in Rome which have been great patrons of art over the centuries. Rome is an extremely grand, luxurious and hospitable city and few visitors go home disappointed.
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June 14, 2008

Abu Dhabi mounts $3bn Picasso exhibition and plans a cultural revolution

Filed under: Hotels, Oil Prices — peterjcooper @ 10:10 am

Yesterday I drove from Dubai to Abu Dhabi with my wife in 38C to see the Picasso exhibition that runs until September 4th at the Emirates Palace Hotel. Entrance is free, and I suppose a broad brush estimate of the worth of the 188 works on display would be around $3 billion, almost as much as it cost to build this extraordinary hotel.

Abu Dhabi is going big on culture these days. Another exhibition in the Emirates Palace has a collection of models and plans for the Sadiyaat Island mega-project, a multi-billion museum park. There is a Guggenheim that looks like the contents of a just emptied trash-can; a centre for the performing arts that is straight out of a science fiction film; and a museum to house works leased from the Paris Louvre and shaped like a giant saucer.

This is certainly going to liven up the monotonous 1970s concrete architecture of Abu Dhabi, and I suppose the Picasso exhibition with works from the Paris museum of Picasso is a sign of things to come.

Even in his own life-time Picasso arose strong feelings pro and anti and several decades after his death the passion of his art is undeniable. There is a desire to encapsulate emotion and not mere form. Indeed, form is often lost amid the power of the emotions.

But Picasso could actually paint. The exhibition has a startlingly realistic representation of his wife Olga (seen above) as well as the alarmingly contorted depictions of some other members of his harem.

The sculpture is similarly varied with heads disfigured by phallic symbols and an odd nanny goat crafted from household objects and then cast in bronze. Was Picasso making a joke of art or trying to tell us something serious? Perhaps he did both and made a huge fortune from his efforts.

Picasso remains an enigma and Abu Dhabi wants to be seen as more than an oil reserve. Yet for most of Picasso’s life Abu Dhabi was a tiny village on the edge of the Persian Gulf with an impoverished population. As late as 1966 Sheikh Shakhbut was deposed because he refused planning permission for the first concrete building in Abu Dhabi.

But it is a mark of just how far Abu Dhabi has advanced that Western culture can now be imported to a building of world-class like the Emirates Palace Hotel, and soon to a dedicated island of museums.

June 5, 2008

The new DIFC Capital Club, a good lunch and a good investment

Filed under: Dubai Property, Hotels, Restaurants, UAE Stocks — peterjcooper @ 9:22 am

The new Capital Club at the Dubai International Financial Centre is similar to many such establishments for top mover and shakers in other global cities, and is presently still seeking its first one thousand members. This membership is actually a transferable debenture and if Dubai takes off as a financial centre is likely to prove a very valuable investment.

At a similar club in Hong Kong ‘memberships’ trade at $1.2 million each so the Capital Club at under $12,000 might be something of a snip. The comparison should not be with a normal club membership but with a seat on the local exchange. The price will rise and fall with the market.

Currently Dubai is very much an emerging capital market with its Dubai International Financial Exchange still in its infancy. But as the commercial hub of the Middle East grows over the next decade into a true regional financial centre it is not hard to envisage its fortunes changing.

Meanwhile, Capital Club members can enjoy splendidly lavish premises in the heart of the DIFC zone with subsidized prices for restaurants, bars and rooms. The main restaurant is a sort of nouvelle Lebanese affair with UAE dishes also available. It would be just the place to wine and dine a visiting guest from the financial sector, and to impress them with the high standards of Dubai hospitality.

You would also do well to accommodate them in the ostentatious guest bedrooms available to club members at just Dhs800 per night. This is a bedroom fit for a king with a stunning bathroom. Within the premises there are numerous rooms available for presentations, perhaps to unveil your financial results to a group of analysts.

I suppose the club atmosphere is a little soulless but its attractively presented staff do their best to inject a feeling of welcome. But you are certainly getting a taste of the best of modern Dubai, and that membership comes with an element of real estate speculation is wholly appropriate.
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May 19, 2008

Ritz Carlton, Dubai: still in a class of its own

Filed under: Hotels, Restaurants — peterjcooper @ 4:00 pm

The latest MasterCard survey of consumer confidence in the UAE showed that no less than 99 per cent of residents planned to spend more on personal travel this year. But one alternative is to save on airfares and book into a top local hotel instead. You will not have the hassle of travel and can afford better accommodation.

And it does not come much better than the Ritz-Carlton Dubai, voted one of the best hotels in the world for service in the 2008 Conde Nast Traveller Gold List. The Ritz-Carlton can also claim the prize for being the most expensive beach hotel in the emirate. Arabian Money decided to check-in for the weekend to check-out the Ritz.

If you want the best of the best then try a Club room on the upper floors of the hotel. These 51 rooms and suites are slightly larger and the marble bathroom boasts a shower that also doubles as a steam room. You also have access to an exclusive Club lounge with complimentary food and beverage presentations that change six times during the day from an American breakfast through to midnight snacks.

But all 138 rooms and suites in this boutique hotel of Moorish architecture have traditional furnishings with the emphasis on dark woods and classical design. They also have great views over the Persian Gulf, and the swimming pools and lavish gardens below.

Attention to detail is evident in every aspect of the Ritz-Carlton, especially in the service standards. You will be treated as an individual. Gone are ‘have-a-nice-day’ scripts. Your name will, however, be remembered and your personal preferences. It probably helps that the 350 staff outnumber the guests.

Outside the hotel has created an outstandingly pleasant recreation area with two swimming pools. One is shaped like a river with its own waterfall. The other is in a designated quiet area for adults only with a Jacuzzi, and water jets in the shallow end.

Al fresco lunches come courtesy of the Splendido Italian and the poolside Asian fusion restaurants. And for a romantic evening dinner the Splendido is an excellent choice with foie gras and Wagyu beef on the menu, alongside many typical Italian dishes. Upstairs the more formal La Baie restaurant is dedicated to the serious seafood of the Gulf.

The first non-European chef ever to win a Michelin Star, the still very young Marcus Dudley presides as executive chef, and is clearly a man out to build a reputation.

If too much eating leaves you in need of a break then head for the relaxing spa complex in the lower part of the hotel. This is a marvelously peaceful haven for an 80-minute signature massage which this correspondent can verify as the ideal antidote to the stresses of modern Dubai.

For the more energetic the gymnasium is also recommended with just the right combination of machines to ensure every muscle receives attention.

Children are also well catered for at the Ritz-Carlton with a substantial crèche and play area, in addition to the river-style swimming pool, and of course plenty of patient and long-suffering staff. The idea is for all the guests to have a good time, and not just the young ones.

Your only real problem at the Ritz-Carlton is likely to be getting a room. The hotel is currently operating at one hundred per cent occupancy, so book early to avoid disappointment and enjoy a holiday without having to travel.
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