Turkey secretly sent nearly 200 Syrian mercenaries to Libya this week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Hundreds of mercenaries are fighting in Libya, where the Turkey-backed Government of National Accord in the capital Tripoli has been locked in a nine-year conflict with Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army in the east.
“To compensate for the return of mercenaries from Libya, nearly 200 fighters belonging to factions loyal to Turkey were secretly transferred from Syrian to Libyan territories,” the observatory said on Sunday.
Around 95 Turkish-backed mercenaries in Libya have returned to Syria over the past few days. This happened after mediation efforts by leaders of their group, said the monitor.
The fighters allegedly paid $500 each to doctors in Libya to write reports stating that their health condition was deteriorating. They then gave the reports to their leaders who permitted their return. They stopped over in Turkey first, before returning to Syria.
The observatory said fighters who returned received only a quarter of their agreed monthly salaries, receiving $500 instead of their promised $2,000 a month, with some claiming they have not received their wages for more than five months.
The country plunged into chaos after a Nato-backed uprising in 2011 toppled longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi. Since then, the country has been split between rival administrations in the east and west.
However, both sides represent unstable coalitions of different political, regional and armed factions with different militias wielding power across the country.
Fighting between them has calmed down in recent weeks after a ceasefire deal was agreed during talks in Tunisia late last year.
Since then, Libyan factions have engaged in UN-led political talks which have made progress towards an agreement on a new transitional government that will oversee the run-up to elections in December.
The UN chose 75 Libyan officials to participate in the talks that began in November.
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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.”
