Al Shabaab attacks Somalia's new parliament in Mogadishu

Several were injured after a motor attack targeted the area around Somalia's parliamentary building as the country's newly-elected politicians met for the second time on Monday.

The attack was claimed by the terrorist group Al Shabaab, and aimed to hit parliament which is located in a heavily fortified compound in the capital Mogadishu.

Several civilians were injured but no members of parliament were harmed.

The attack came as MPs were setting dates for ballots to choose speakers for the lower and upper houses, the next stage in a stuttering process to elect the fragile nation's new president.

New members of the Senate and the House of the People were sworn in on Thursday after elections - which were held more than a year behind schedule - were marred by deadly violence and a power struggle between the current president and the prime minister.

The upper house will vote on April 26 to choose a speaker, with the lower house choosing its president the following day, officials said.

As Monday's parliamentary session was being streamed live on television several explosions were heard and MPs were told to stay inside.

“We have no details yet but these explosions were caused by mortar fire, the legislators were safe and unharmed inside the building when the incident occurred,” a security officer told AFP.

“I was in the area when the mortar shells landed outside the building where the parliamentarians were meeting, several people were wounded lightly in one of the blasts,” witness Abdukadir Ali said.

Al Shabaab, the Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group that has been waging an insurgency against the central government for more than a decade, claimed responsibility for the attack in a brief statement.

The UN mission in Somalia, UNSOM, issued a statement condemning the mortar attack, saying it “stands firm with Somalis in their efforts to complete the electoral process and progress on national priorities.”

Some parliamentary seats remain unfilled but sufficient MPs have been sworn in to move the election process forward.

So far, 297 MPs have taken the oath of office, from a possible 329 members for both houses.

Somalia has not held a one-person, one-vote election in 50 years.

Instead, elections have followed a complex indirect model, whereby state legislatures and clan delegates pick MPs for the national parliament, who in turn choose the president.

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.”

Al Shabaab attacks Somalia's new parliament in Mogadishu

Several civilians were injured in a mortar attack targeting the capital's parliament building