Jeeran acquires Talasim

Jeeran, the Jordanian online community portal, has made its first acquisition in its quest to launch a series of local websites in the region this year. Omar Koudsi, the co-founder and chief executive of Jeeran, said it had acquired the Arabic entertainment start-up Talasim and its engineering team for US$1 million (Dh3.6m) in Jeeran stock. Although the transaction may be small compared with Yahoo's acquisition of the portal Maktoob last August for $164m, the deal is an indication that the Arab online start-up business is beginning to mature.

"By any measure, Talasim was going to be one of the big things in the Arab world," said Mr Koudsi. "But for us to really be something, we had to combine forces. We're going to make use of [Talasim] as an entertainment content asset of Jeeran and we need the founders to help build us our products." Jeeran is one of the Arab world's most popular and oldest online destinations with about 7.5 million unique visitors logging on to the website last month. It was founded about 10 years ago and has been funded by two venture capital firms, IV Holdings and Intel Capital.

Over the past year, Talasim has emerged as an Arab-based start-up to watch. The website won the top prize last year in London at SeedCamp, an international competition that provides entrepreneurs with funding and incubation assistance. "For companies like Jeeran to take it to the next level, we need to keep entrepreneurial types within the company," said Mr Koudsi. "We cannot survive if we just have three really good people and 50 average staff."

The website is preparing to roll out localised versions of its portal, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia to be the first this year. Mr Koudsi said Talasim engineers would be the main developers behind its localisation plans. "When the world thinks of what is a successful Arab website, I think that there's a void there," he said. "What we want to do is fill up this void and I believe a lot of that is going to happen - localisation where websites cater to each country's unique demands."

Mr Koudsi said Jeeran had begun offering its employees a stock option package this month to help retain talent, and hire talented Arab engineers. @Email:dgeorgecosh@thenational.ae

TYPES%20OF%20ONLINE%20GIG%20WORK

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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups

Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.

Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.

Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.

Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).

Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.

Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.

Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.

Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.

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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SERIE A FIXTURES

Friday Sassuolo v Benevento (Kick-off 11.45pm)

Saturday Crotone v Spezia (6pm), Torino v Udinese (9pm), Lazio v Verona (11.45pm)

Sunday Cagliari v Inter Milan (3.30pm), Atalanta v Fiorentina (6pm), Napoli v Sampdoria (6pm), Bologna v Roma (6pm), Genoa v Juventus (9pm), AC Milan v Parma (11.45pm)

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Straightforward ways to reduce sugar in your family's diet

Ban fruit juice and sodas
Eat a hearty breakfast that contains fats and wholegrains, such as peanut butter on multigrain toast or full-fat plain yoghurt with whole fruit and nuts, to avoid the need for a 10am snack
Give young children plain yoghurt with whole fruits mashed into it
Reduce the number of cakes, biscuits and sweets. Reserve them for a treat
Don’t eat dessert every day
Make your own smoothies. Always use the whole fruit to maintain the benefit of its fibre content and don’t add any sweeteners
Always go for natural whole foods over processed, packaged foods. Ask yourself would your grandmother have eaten it?
Read food labels if you really do feel the need to buy processed food
Eat everything in moderation

Analysis

Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more

French business

France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.