Jordan's King Abdullah and Kuwait's Emir meet and call for Gaza ceasefire

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Jordan's King Abdullah and Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshal have called for efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza during talks in Amman, according to a joint statement released on Wednesday.

Sheikh Meshal arrived in Amman on Tuesday on an official visit, his first to Jordan since he became Kuwait's ruler at the end of 2023.

The two leaders "affirmed the need for the international community, especially the Security Council, to issue a resolution imposing a ceasefire in Gaza."

It should also "protect civilians and guarantee humanitarian aid delivery in all possible ways".

The King and Sheikh Meshal "reject what could lead to the expansion of the war, and the land assaults on Rafah". The area on the border with Egypt is perceived as containing a heavy concentration of Hamas fighters.

The two men also discussed "current developments".

"His Majesty warned about the danger of the latest escalation, which could push the region into a state of insecurity and instability," a Jordanian Royal Palace statement said, in apparent reference to the recent hostilities between Israel and Iran.

The king and his son, Crown Prince Hussein, received Sheikh Meshal on his arrival at Marka military airport in Amman on Tuesday.

Kuwait employs 64,000 Jordanian expatriate workers and is a main investor in Jordan.

Kuwaiti Finance Minister Anwar Al Mudhaf and Foreign Minister Abdullah Al Yahya are accompanying Sheikh Meshal on the visit.

Kuwait is among the six GCC countries that have been co-ordinating diplomatic moves on Gaza, while each maintaining their own position on it. Within days of Israel’s strikes on Gaza after Hamas’s attack on southern Isreal on October 7, the GGC foreign ministers met in an extraordinary session.

Jordan, which has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1994, has been fiercely critical of Israel for its conduct in the Gaza war, Officials in Amman have been also cautioning of a spillover in the West Bank, which could produce another wave of Palestinian refugees into the kingdom.

A large proportion of Jordan's 10 million population are descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled to Jordan when Israel was created in 1948, and in the 1967 Middle East War.

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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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- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;

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- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,

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