Conservative Party heavyweight Sajid Javid has been named as the UK's new Health Secretary after Matt Hancock was forced to quit the role for breaking Covid rules.
A former chancellor of the exchequer, Mr Javid steps in as the government tries to bring an end to coronavirus restrictions despite a rise in infections fuelled by the Delta variant of the virus.
He returns to the Cabinet more than a year after losing a power struggle with Prime Minister Boris Johnson's former adviser Dominic Cummings, who criticised the government recently.
Mr Javid was one of the contenders for the Conservative leadership in 2019. That contest was eventually won by Mr Johnson.
He subsequently became chancellor, the UK equivalent of finance minister, but resigned last year after a clash with Mr Johnson over the hiring of departmental aides.
Mr Javid said he had no option but to resign after he was ordered to replace his political advisers.
"I was unable to accept those conditions. I don't believe any self-respecting minister would accept such conditions," he said.
It followed reports of clashes between Mr Javid and Mr Cummings, who was then Mr Johnson's top adviser.
Mr Cummings was himself ousted in November amid a power struggle in the Prime Minister's Downing Street office, which was rumoured to involve Mr Johnson's wife, Carrie Johnson.
Mr Cummings suggested on Saturday that Mrs Johnson was behind Mr Javid's return to the government.
He claimed that he had "tricked" Mr Johnson into removing Mr Javid, whom he described as "bog standard" and "awful" for the National Health Service.
Mr Javid said his top priority now was to bring about a "return to normal" in the UK.
"We are still in a pandemic and I want to see that come to an end as soon as possible," he said.
High-flying family
Mr Javid’s Pakistani parents arrived in the UK in 1961, where his father worked as a bus driver in Rotherham, northern England before setting up his clothing business, Scallywags, in Bristol.
The middle sibling of five children, he acknowledges his Muslim heritage but does not practise a religion.
His brother Basit is deputy assistant commissioner at London’s Metropolitan Police; Atif is a property entrepreneur and Khalid is the founder of property finance firm Blackstone Financial Solutions.
The eldest brother Tariq, 52, was found dead in a Sussex hotel in 2018 having taken his own life. Tariq had been a successful retail entrepreneur.
Mr Javid has spoken of his personal memories of racial abuse as a child.
He graduated from the University of Exeter with a degree in economics and politics in 1991 as the first of his family to attend university.
He had a successful career in the upper echelons of the financial sector, starting with a spell at New York’s Chase Manhattan bank.
On his return to Britain, he worked at Deutsche Bank International, rising to the board of directors.
He was elected MP for Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, in 2010. He is married and has four children.
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Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
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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.”
