Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began a tour of Gulf states on Monday evening with a visit to Oman, where his talks with Sultan Haitham are expected to focus on salvaging a nuclear pact between Iran and the West, resolving regional conflicts and increasing co-operation between their countries.
Sultan Haitham received Prince Mohammed at the Royal Airport, along with senior government officials and members of the royal family.
An Omani Foreign Ministry spokesman told The National that the talks between the two leaders would be “a follow-up of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarek’s visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and also the relations between the Gulf countries with Iran, particularly on Iran’s nuclear agreement with the West”.
Sultan Haitham met King Salman during his visit to Saudi Arabia in July, when the two countries agreed to establish a joint council on economic ventures including maritime, agriculture, industrial and logistics projects.
The Saudi Press Agency said Prince Mohammed would sign an agreement to establish the Omani-Saudi Co-ordination Council during his visit.
The council will “see to the sustainability and expansion of co-operation between the two countries, with great scope for more agreements and memorandums of understanding", Spa said.
Western diplomats in Oman said they expected the Saudi crown prince’s visit to be dominated by talks on resolving regional conflicts.
“The Saudis see Oman as a crucial link with Iran. Bin Salman needs Oman to convince the Iranians to get back to the negotiation table to salvage the nuclear pact. Also, the Saudis need Oman to tame the Houthis in Yemen to accept a peace treaty,” a western diplomat based in Muscat told The National.
“Oman stands to benefit from being a mediator for these two conflicts by winning important contracts from the Saudis to boost its ailing economy."
A government trade official said Saudi Arabia’s plans to establish an industrial zone in Oman would also feature in the discussions.
“Part of the talks will be on the Saudis developing an industrial zone at Duqm to transport goods between Oman and Saudi Arabia from this special economic zone,” the official told The National.
He did not give further details.
The Oman News Agency reported that leading Saudi Arabian and Omani companies on Monday signed several agreements before Prince Mohammed’s arrival, covering vital sectors such as petrochemicals, renewable energy, mining, tourism and maritime transport.
Omani energy company Okio Group agreed with Saudi Aramco and the privately-owned ACWA Power, which specialises in desalinated water production, to increase co-operation in renewable energy and hydrogen technology in power generation. Saudi Basic Industries Corporation signed an agreement to develop a petrochemicals project in Duqm, while the Muscat Stock Exchange and the Saudi Tadawul Group agreed to increase co-operation, the Omani state news agency said.
Oman and Saudi Arabia this year announced the construction of a motorway linking the two neighbours through the Empty Quarter desert region.
The motorway, more than 700 kilometres long, will start from Ibri, a town in south-west Oman, and end in Alkwifriah in Al Ahsa, eastern Saudi Arabia.
Abdullah Saud Al Anzi, the kingdom's ambassador to Muscat, said the motorway would be opened soon.
He said Prince Mohammed's visit reaffirmed the "deep historical ties" between the two nations and their expansion into "wider horizons of co-operation".
Oman has embarked on an ambitious economic development plan – Vision 2040 – to wean its economy off dependence on oil revenue and introduce medium-term measures to rein in its debt, which has grown in recent years.
Prince Mohammed’s tour will take in all five fellow members of the Gulf Co-operation Council – Oman, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.
It will be his first visit to Qatar since the AlUla summit in January ended a rift in the GCC and re-established ties between Doha and Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain.
Saudi Arabian state media reported that the tour would be focused on ways to enhance co-ordination between GCC states and measures to strengthen the work of the regional body, before the leaders’ summit in mid-December.
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.”
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
PROVISIONAL FIXTURE LIST
Premier League
Wednesday, June 17 (Kick-offs uae times) Aston Villa v Sheffield United 9pm; Manchester City v Arsenal 11pm
Friday, June 19 Norwich v Southampton 9pm; Tottenham v Manchester United 11pm
Saturday, June 20 Watford v Leicester 3.30pm; Brighton v Arsenal 6pm; West Ham v Wolves 8.30pm; Bournemouth v Crystal Palace 10.45pm
Sunday, June 21 Newcastle v Sheffield United 2pm; Aston Villa v Chelsea 7.30pm; Everton v Liverpool 10pm
Monday, June 22 Manchester City v Burnley 11pm (Sky)
Tuesday, June 23 Southampton v Arsenal 9pm; Tottenham v West Ham 11.15pm
Wednesday, June 24 Manchester United v Sheffield United 9pm; Newcastle v Aston Villa 9pm; Norwich v Everton 9pm; Liverpool v Crystal Palace 11.15pm
Thursday, June 25 Burnley v Watford 9pm; Leicester v Brighton 9pm; Chelsea v Manchester City 11.15pm; Wolves v Bournemouth 11.15pm
Sunday June 28 Aston Villa vs Wolves 3pm; Watford vs Southampton 7.30pm
Monday June 29 Crystal Palace vs Burnley 11pm
Tuesday June 30 Brighton vs Manchester United 9pm; Sheffield United vs Tottenham 11.15pm
Wednesday July 1 Bournemouth vs Newcastle 9pm; Everton vs Leicester 9pm; West Ham vs Chelsea 11.15pm
Thursday July 2 Arsenal vs Norwich 9pm; Manchester City vs Liverpool 11.15pm
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20IPHONE%2014
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Squads
India: Kohli (c), Rahul, Shaw, Agarwal, Pujara, Rahane, Vihari, Pant (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep, Shami, Umesh, Siraj, Thakur
West Indies: Holder (c), Ambris, Bishoo, Brathwaite, Chase, Dowrich (wk), Gabriel, Hamilton, Hetmyer, Hope, Lewis, Paul, Powell, Roach, Warrican, Joseph
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Match info
Uefa Champions League Group B
Barcelona v Tottenham Hotspur, midnight
