Iraqi forces on Saturday captured an ISIL desert outpost near the Syrian border in preparation for a drive up the Euphrates Valley towards the frontier, as Syrian government forces launched an offensive from the opposite side.
The capture of Akashat, a former mining town in mainly Sunni Arab Anbar province, came just hours after the Iraqi forces launched their assault. It was the first Iraqi operation against ISIL since the northern city of Tal Afar was retaken from the militants last month.
The Iraqi military said the offensive aims to retake militant-held towns in the Euphrates river valley including Al Qaim, which along with Rawa and Anna downstream forms one of just two enclaves still held by ISIL in Iraq.
"The army, the Hashed Al Shaabi and the border guard launched a major operation to liberate Akashat and secure the border to its north," said General Abdelamir Yarallah, head of the Joint Operations Command for the campaign against ISIL.
The Hashed Al Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces, is a paramilitary force comprised mainly of Iran-trained Shiite militias but also includes some fighters recruited from Sunni tribes.
Iran-backed militants are also involved in an offensive to take ISIL positions on the Syrian side of the same border area, which are also the target of the US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters known as Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
An alliance of Shiite militias fighting with the Syrian army said it launched an assault on Saturday to reach Albu Kamal, the Syrian border town on the Euphrates that faces Al Qaim.
Securing Albu Kamal is important for Iran as the two other main crossings from Iraq into Syria, to the north and to the south, are under the control of forces allied with the United States.
Securing a land corridor across Iraq could make it easier for Iran to ferry heavy weapons to Syria should Baghdad approve such transfers. The Shiite-led Iraqi government in Baghdad has good relations with both Tehran and Washington.
The Russian- and US-backed campaigns against ISIL in Syria have mostly stayed out of each other's way as the sides seek to avoid conflict, with the Euphrates often acting as a dividing line between them.
But a senior aide to Syrian president Bashar Al Assad has said his government was ready to fight the SDF to recapture the entire country.
The cross-border "caliphate" declared by ISIL in 2014 in effect collapsed in July, when a US-backed Iraqi offensive captured Mosul, the militants' capital in Iraq.
Iraqi commanders estimate that ISIL still has more than 1,500 fighters in its Al Qaim enclave.
The extremist group controls another enclave west of the ethnically divided Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk, centred on the mainly Sunni Arab town of Hawija, but an offensive there has been delayed by a dispute over a Kurdish independence referendum planned for later this month.
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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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War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
