More than half a dozen states in eastern India and some coastal regions of neighbouring Bangladesh were on Tuesday bracing for heavy rainfall from a "very severe cyclonic storm" that has formed in the Bay of Bengal.
Cyclone Hamoon was about 400km from the port city of Paradip in India’s Odisha state on Tuesday afternoon, and 550km south of Bangladesh, where it was expected to make landfall on Wednesday.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said Hamoon had intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm with wind speeds of 130kph.
“The impact will start from afternoon and hit the coast between Khepupara and Chittagong,” Mritunjay Mohapatra, the IMD's director general, told The National.
The cyclone has already brought heavy rainfall to Odisha, West Bengal, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur and Assam states in India’s eastern and north-eastern regions.
“The coastal districts of West Bengal have recorded 9cm of rainfall today and the coastal districts in Odisha have received 5cm,” Mr Mohapatra said. He added that the rain would increase over Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur and southern Assam on Tuesday into Wednesday.
"Wind speed of 40-50kph is expected tomorrow," he said on Tuesday.
“It will be a cyclonic storm when it hits Bangladesh but much adverse impact is not expected. However, heavy rain will continue and we're expecting a one to two-metre-high tidal surge."
Authorities in the Odisha and West Bengal have ordered the evacuation of people from low-lying areas in the event of heavy rain and asked fishermen not to go out to sea.
Hamoon was named by Iran, after the Farsi word for inland desert lakes or marshlands, under a convention established by the World Meteorological Organisation that allows countries to take turns naming storms in their regional grouping.
It is the second cyclone to affect India in the space of a week, after Cyclone Tej formed in the Arabian Sea off the country's west coast on October 21.
Tej, which brought rain and thunderstorms to India's southernmost states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, made landfall as a severe cyclone on the coast between Al Ghaidah in Yemen and Salalah in Oman around 2am on Tuesday.
Mr Mohapatra said the twin occurrence of cyclones was rare but not unknown.
“This is not related to climate change,” he said. "There is a global favourable environment for cyclone genesis. About seven cyclone genesis have taken place in the globe including Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, North Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. It is a random phenomenon that happens sometimes in different ocean basins."
Eight of the world's 10 deadliest tropical cyclones have originated in the Bay of Bengal, according to a list by Weather Underground.
Odisha, with 480km of coastline flanking the bay, is highly susceptible to the effects of such storms.
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.”
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
