LORCA // Spain's crown prince and princess sought Friday to comfort relatives of nine people killed in Spain's deadliest earthquakes in more than 50 years, hugging them and shaking their hands as they slowly made their way along a long row of mourners.
Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia bent down to chat with the mourners at a crowded funeral Mass celebrated in a trade center, part of which has been turned into a makeshift refugee camp after two quakes Wednesday left many homeless in this southeastern city. Many of those in the front row at the Mass wore dark glasses.
At one point the prince stooped down to speak to a boy and affectionately ruffled the child's dark hair.
Another of those at the Mass was Teresa Corbalan, 65, who lost a cousin in the second of the two tremors. Pedro Jose Rubio Corbalan, 73, was in a bar playing dominoes when the second, larger quake hit. He was struck fatally in the head by falling concrete as he tried to run outside.
"The family is destroyed," Corbalan said.
Also attending the Mass was Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who earlier toured the ravaged city for a firsthand look at widespread damage that forced an estimated 3,000 people to spend another night sleeping in tents in makeshift camps.
Zapatero visited the area hardest hit by Wednesday's two quakes, which also injured nearly 300, and pledged the government will help the city rebuild and return to normal as soon as possible.
Zapatero watched crews tear away loose chunks of concrete from the tops of buildings and let them crash to the ground, raising clouds of dust.
"It is my conviction that we are going to meet this test," he said afterward. "The earthquake was hard and strong. But this country is stronger. Its desire for solidarity and reconstruction are stronger."
The Spanish Cabinet approved in an emergency decree an aid program for people who lost their homes or businesses.
Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba gave no overall figure, but the plan includes money for people to rent elsewhere while their destroyed or damaged homes are repaired or rebuilt, and ¤25 million ($35 million) in credit lines for people to repair their places of business, farms, factories or even cars or motorcycles.
At the funeral Mass, there were only four coffins in part because some of the families of the deceased wanted private funerals, town hall and regional officials said.
Lorca's mayor said Thursday that of around 550 buildings inspected so far by engineers and architects, more than half are uninhabitable.
Lorca is a city of some 90,000 that lives off agriculture.
Guns N’ Roses’s last gig before Abu Dhabi was in Hong Kong on November 21. We were there – and here’s what they played, and in what order. You were warned.
- It’s So Easy
- Mr Brownstone
- Chinese Democracy
- Welcome to the Jungle
- Double Talkin’ Jive
- Better
- Estranged
- Live and Let Die (Wings cover)
- Slither (Velvet Revolver cover)
- Rocket Queen
- You Could Be Mine
- Shadow of Your Love
- Attitude (Misfits cover)
- Civil War
- Coma
- Love Theme from The Godfather (movie cover)
- Sweet Child O’ Mine
- Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb cover)
- Wish You Were Here (instrumental Pink Floyd cover)
- November Rain
- Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden cover)
- Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan cover)
- Nightrain
Encore:
- Patience
- Don’t Cry
- The Seeker (The Who cover)
- Paradise City
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
