Tom Cruise. Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
Tom Cruise. Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
Tom Cruise. Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
Tom Cruise. Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

Tom Cruise goes home alone for his 50th birthday

Plus: Andy Griffith dies at 80, JK Rowling releases new book's cover, Lily Allen is back, Simon Cowell fascinated by shy Britney, and Alec Baldwin quits Twitter - again.

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Tom Cruise headed home from Iceland to California on Tuesday, his 50th birthday, reported Us Weekly magazine. The actor was in Reykjavik filming his new film Oblivion when his wife Katie Holmes filed for divorce in New York last week. According to reports, Cruise was blindsided by the separation. He will be staying in their Beverly Hills mansion, while Holmes and their six-year-old daughter Suri are at a new Manhattan apartment Holmes secured before filing for divorce.

Andy Griffith dies at 86

Andy Griffith, whose homespun mix of humour and wisdom made The Andy Griffith Show an enduring TV favourite, died on Tuesday in North Carolina. He was 86. His show, where he played a small-town sheriff, was one of the top hits of the 1960s and a perennial in reruns. He solidified his TV-fixture status in another successful series, Matlock. * AP

Rowling releases novel cover

Publishers have released the cover of the JK Rowling novel set for worldwide release in September. The Casual Vacancy will be the Harry Potter author's first offering aimed primarily at adults. The novel is set in the fictional English town of Pagford and deals with the unexplained death of a village resident. * AP

Lily Allen back from break

Lily Allen has ended her break from music after making an appearance with the rapper Professor Green on stage at the Stone Roses reunion concert last week in Manchester. After the show, she posted on Twitter: "No, Professor Green was not swinging a cat around on stage. That was me trying to sing. Loved it." Allen, 27, took an indefinite break from the industry in 2010 to start a family with her then-boyfriend, the painter Sam Cooper. The couple married in June last year and she gave birth to daughter Ethel in November. Allen revealed she has been recording new tracks since April. * IANS

Cowell fascinated by shy Britney

Simon Cowell says he's "fascinated" by the down-to-earth nature of Britney Spears, his new co-judge on The X Factor, which is holding auditions in Hollywood. "She's not on the show to be Britney Spears on a TV show," Cowell told People magazine. "She's actually there to prove to the world there's more to her. You think she's going to be very confident, but in real life she's shy. There's kind of a mystique about her."

Alec Baldwin quits Twitter, again

Alec Baldwin has closed down his Twitter account, bidding farewell to thousands of followers on the micro-blogging site with the words "it's been fun". The newlywed actor had been busy tweeting until his nuptials last Sunday, even posting a photograph of his wedding ring. Baldwin first quit Twitter last December after he was removed from an American Airlines flight for allegedly refusing to stop using his mobile phone. * IANS

Bert van Marwijk factfile

Born: May 19 1952
Place of birth: Deventer, Netherlands
Playing position: Midfielder

Teams managed:
1998-2000 Fortuna Sittard
2000-2004 Feyenoord
2004-2006 Borussia Dortmund
2007-2008 Feyenoord
2008-2012 Netherlands
2013-2014 Hamburg
2015-2017 Saudi Arabia
2018 Australia

Major honours (manager):
2001/02 Uefa Cup, Feyenoord
2007/08 KNVB Cup, Feyenoord
World Cup runner-up, Netherlands

TO A LAND UNKNOWN

Director: Mahdi Fleifel

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Rating: 4.5/5

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Libya's Gold

UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves. 

The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.

Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.

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.”

On Women's Day
FIRST TEST SCORES

England 458
South Africa 361 & 119 (36.4 overs)

England won by 211 runs and lead series 1-0

Player of the match: Moeen Ali (England)

 

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