France's far-right handed power to a new generation on Saturday as Jordan Bardella, 27, replaced Marine Le Pen as leader of the National Rally party.
Mr Bardella is the first leader from outside the Le Pen family since patriarch Jean-Marie Le Pen co-founded the party in 1972.
The departing Ms Le Pen is expected to retain significant influence and potentially make another run for the French presidency in 2027.
"I am not leaving the presidency of the National Rally to take a holiday," she said.
But the handover to Mr Bardella is the latest sign of the party's efforts to modernise its image and appeal to a younger generation.
Mr Bardella, a former party spokesman and current member of the European Parliament, won 85 per cent of votes in the internal contest.
He defeated Louis Aliot, the mayor of the French city of Perpignan, who is a former partner of Ms Le Pen.
"I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the trust that you have placed in me," Mr Bardella told a party conference on Saturday.
It comes days after a racism scandal that threatened to set back years of efforts by Ms Le Pen to detoxify the party's brand.
National Rally MP Gregoire de Fournas was given a 15-day suspension from parliament after yelling "go back to Africa" while a black MP spoke.
He insisted he was talking about migrant boats, not the MP in question, but the remark led to a wave of condemnation.
Olivier Veran, a minister in President Emmanuel Macron's government, used the party's old name to say: "The National Front has shown its true face."
The elder Mr Le Pen, 94, was expelled from the party in 2015 after a long history of racist and anti-Semitic remarks.
Under his daughter Ms Le Pen, 54, the party has widened its support and won a record 89 seats in the National Assembly in June.
At France's presidential election in April, Ms Le Pen won 42 per cent of the vote in a run-off against Mr Macron, another high for the far right.
Mr Macron will be ineligible to run for a third term in 2027 and has no obvious heir in the political centre.
"Jordan Bardella brings youth and renewal," another far-right MP, Thomas Menage, told French television, but "our guiding policy is that of Marine Le Pen and it is very clear."
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.”
Museum of the Future in numbers
- 78 metres is the height of the museum
- 30,000 square metres is its total area
- 17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
- 14 kilometres is the length of LED lights used on the facade
- 1,024 individual pieces make up the exterior
- 7 floors in all, with one for administrative offices
- 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members frame the torus shape
- 100 species of trees and plants dot the gardens
- Dh145 is the price of a ticket
