Take two: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are engaged, again

Jennifer Lopez has confirmed her engagement to Ben Affleck, for the second time in 20 years.

On Friday night, the singer and actor, 52, posted a video on her newsletter On The JLo, where she wears an engagement ring.

Sporting a sparkling emerald and diamond ring, the On The Floor songstress appeared emotional with tears of joy.

She also posted on Instagram, telling her 202 million followers to go to her official website where she had “a really exciting, and special story to share.”

“It’s my inner circle where I share my more personal things and this one is definitely on the J-lo,” said Lopez.

The engagement is second-time lucky for J-Lo and Affleck, 49, after the actors first got engaged 20 years ago.

Affleck popped the question back in 2002, when the duo were in their early thirties. After meeting on the set of box office flop Gigli, the pair had a two-year relationship, but called time on it in 2004.

Lopez went on to marry singer-songwriter Marc Anthony later the same year, and had twins Max and Emme with the top-selling tropical salsa artist of all time. After seven years together, they split in 2011.

The Maid in Manhattan actress was most recently engaged to baseball star Alex Rodriguez, but the pair split last year.

Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez announced their split last year. Invision/AP

Affleck tied the knot with actor Jennifer Garner in 2005 and had a 10-year marriage. The Hollywood couple filed for divorce two years after splitting up in 2015 and now share custody of their three children, Violet, Seraphina and Samuel.

In April last year, J-Lo and the Argo director rekindled their two-decade-old romance, going Instagram-official in July for the singer's birthday.

Now, a year since the pair reunited, it is take two for romance in the Lopez-Affleck household.

If the pair make it down the aisle, it will be Lopez's fourth wedding. In addition to her union with Anthony, she was also wed briefly to Cris Judd and Ojani Noa.

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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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Take two: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are engaged, again

Bennifer 2.0 is now official after the singer went online to announce their second engagement

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