Man tears down Portugal flags set up by Ronaldo fans in India

Police in India have arrested a man who ripped up the national flag of Portugal after he mistook it for the emblem of a controversial political party, enraging supporters of the Portuguese team in the football-obsessed southern state of Kerala.

In a video that has gone viral, the man can be seen violently uprooting Portuguese flags set up along a road in Kerala's Kannur district and tearing them up.

The red and green Portuguese flag's design is similar to that of the Social Democratic Party of India, the political arm of the Popular Front of India, a banned Islamist group.

The flags were apparently put up by fans of Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo.

Local media reported that fans rushed to confront the man, believed to be a supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party.

Police intervened to break up the crowd and arrested the man, whose was not identified. He was later released on bail.

Mr Modi's government banned the Popular Front of India in October over allegations of terrorism but its political arm still has significant support in the region.

Emotions usually run high in Kerala during international football events. Large cut-outs of stars such as Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Neymar Jr have been set up across the state in the lead up to the Fifa World Cup kicking off in Qatar on Sunday. Fans often engage in wild celebrations and brawls during major tournaments.

Cutouts of footballers, Brazil's Neymar, left, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, centre, and Argentina's Lionel Messi, placed by football fans in the Cherupuzha river, in Kozhikode, Kerala. AFP

Last week, police in the state briefly detained a man who smashed, with his head, the windscreen of a moving bus festooned with an Argentinian flag.

He told the police that he was upset after seeing the bus because he was a fan of the Brazilian team.

Portugal's team arrives in Qatar for World Cup — in pictures

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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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