Iraq's Kurdistan region announces November elections

Iraq’s Kurdistan region has set November 18 as the date for parliamentary elections following a delay after a dispute between the two major ruling parties.

Kurdish President Nechirvan Barzani issued a decree on Sunday and approved the date, Kurdistan Regional Government spokesman Dilshad Shahab said.

The vote should elect both a parliament and a president for Kurdish regions, which gained self-rule in 1991.

Mr Shahab said the President has called on the regional authorities and the Independent High Elections Commission to prepare for the elections.

“We call on the representatives of the UN to help us make the elections a success,” he said.

The elections was postponed by a year following long disagreements between the two dominant political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

They have had differences over electoral constituency boundaries.

The parliament has 111 seats, in which the KDP — which controls the capital Erbil- has 45, while the PUK has 21.

“No party opposes this date,” Mr Shabab said.

The last parliamentary elections in Iraq's Kurdish region were held on September 30, 2018.

The regional parliament not only votes on legislation in the autonomous territory but also approves Kurdistan government appointments including the prime minister.

Kurdish officials have painted the region, which has its own security forces, the peshmerga, as a haven of stability in conflict-ridden Iraq.

But activists and opposition figures have decried corruption, arbitrary arrests and the intimidation of protesters.

Disputes between the KDP and the PUK have been centred on the allocation of budgetary funds.

Further disagreements at Iraq's national level have usually been between Erbil and the central government in Baghdad over federal budget allocations to Kurdistan, as well as the management of oil exports from the resource-rich region.

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.”

Iraq's Kurdistan region announces November elections

President Nechirvan Barzani issues decree to approve date