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The leaders of Egypt and Qatar, countries mediating the provision of more aid to Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas, met in Cairo on Friday to review efforts to de-escalate the month-old war that has devastated the coastal enclave.
The talks between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim focused on the protection of civilians and halting the bloodshed in Gaza, where nearly 11,000 people, including more than 4,000 children, have been killed in the relentless Israeli bombardment, the president's office said.
They also reviewed efforts to allow substantial humanitarian supplies to reach Gaza's 2.3 million people.
“The two leaders also emphasised their rejection of any attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause at the expense of the Palestinian people or countries in the region, as well as forced evictions,” the president's office said.
Their talks came on the eve of an emergency Arab summit in Saudi Arabia to discuss the war, which began after Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people in southern Israel on October 7 and took about 240 hostages back to Gaza.
The visit by Sheikh Tamim followed a meeting in Doha on Thursday between Qatar's Prime Minister and the chiefs of the US and Israeli spy agencies to discuss the parameters of a deal for the release of hostages in exchange for a pause in Israel's attacks, Reuters reported.
Negotiations also involve the US, Egypt and Hamas, whose political leaders held talks in Cairo on Thursday with Egypt's intelligence chief Gen Abbas Kamel.
Hamas is demanding a three-day truce to allow more humanitarian supplies into Gaza and the departure of injured civilians to Egypt for treatment. But Israel was opposed to an extended truce and preferred to offer intermittent pauses, Egyptian officials said.
The UN said on Thursday that Israel has agreed to daily four-hour pauses in the north of Gaza and the opening of safe corridors for civilians to move south.
Under the proposed deal, the dispatch of larger amounts of relief supplies to Gaza would be co-ordinated by Egypt, which shares a border with Israel and Gaza in the Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian officials said.
Israel has agreed in principle to allow the entry of fuel into Gaza, provided its use is restricted to hospitals and key infrastructure including desalination plants and power stations. It also wants the use of the fuel monitored by the UN and US representatives, Egyptian officials said.
The officials did not know the exact number of the hostages who would be released under the proposed deal, but suggested it could be anywhere between 20 and 50, including US citizens. They would include women, children and elderly people, and would be freed in batches.
Hamas also wants women and children held in Israeli jails to be released under the agreement. The group has also called for steps to ensure Israeli forces inside Gaza are not reinforced or redeployed during the truce.
There has been no official comment from any of the four countries involved in the negotiations, or from Hamas.
Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and maintains a working relationship with Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza. Like Egypt, Qatar is a close US ally that has relations with Hamas's political leaders. Doha is also home to several of the group's senior political leaders.
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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