Saudi Arabia rejects Al Qaeda deal for release of diplomat in Yemen

A Saudi spokesman said yesterday that a suspected Al Qaeda militant claimed responsibility for kidnapping the diplomat, Abdallah Al Khalidi, and demanded the release of militants in Saudi prisons.

Reuters

April 18, 2012

Saudi Arabia rejected any negotiations with Al Qaeda for the release of a diplomat seized in Yemen last month and vowed to do all it can to free the hostage, a Saudi-owned newspaper reported yesterday.

A Saudi spokesman said yesterday that a suspected Al Qaeda militant claimed responsibility for kidnapping the diplomat, Abdallah Al Khalidi, and demanded the release of militants in Saudi prisons. He threatened in a call to the Saudi embassy in Sanaa to kill the diplomat unless their demands are met.

"The Saudi government cannot negotiate or bargain with Al Qaeda, the kidnapping party," Al Hayat newspaper quoted the assistant foreign minister, Prince Khaled bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, as saying.

"We are working and will work with all our power, and we have instructions from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques [King Abdullah] ..., to follow up with the brothers in Yemen to ensure his release," he said.

Mr Al Khalidi, the kingdom's deputy consul in Aden, Yemen, was kidnapped outside his residence on March 28.

A Saudi spokesman said the Al Qaeda caller had been identified as Mishaal Al Shodoukhi, who was named on a list of fugitive Al Qaeda militants by Saudi authorities in 2009.

Mr Al Shodoukhi threatened that his group would "prepare the knives" unless their demands were met, an official Saudi spokesman said, and warned of more attacks including an embassy bombing and the assassination of a Saudi prince.

Yemen's political turmoil has strengthened Islamist insurgents in the country, leading to their takeover of some cities in the south of Yemen. They are allied with a regional wing of Al Qaeda that has sworn to bring down Saudi Arabia's ruling family.

The Saudi interior ministry said last year it was holding 5,696 people for "militant" related cases, most of whom appeared before courts.

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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.”

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