KABUL // Mullah Akhtar Mansour, the newly chosen supreme leader of the Taliban, may be one of the group’s founding members but some within the movement believe that his loyalties lie elsewhere
The longtime trusted deputy of former leader Mullah Omar is facing staunch internal resistance from some members of the Taliban’s ruling council, the Quetta Shura, who accuse Pakistan of hijacking the movement.
“Mansour is seen as a man of Pakistan – that is why severe differences are going on among the Taliban leadership,” said a midlevel Taliban official.
Some Taliban are also unhappy at the thought that Mansour may have deceived them for over a year about the death of Omar, while others accuse him of riding roughshod over the process to appoint a successor.
And, in the clearest sign yet of the challenge that the militant faces in uniting the deeply divided group, at the Taliban meeting on Wednesday night where Mansour was named as the new leader, several senior figures in the movement, including the son and brother of Omar, walked out in protest.
“Many Taliban commanders and members of the Quetta Shura will not accept his leadership,” said Kabul-based military analyst, Jawed Kohistani.
“His selection will only widen the rift within the Taliban.”
But the internal opposition is unlikely to prevent Mansour from proceeding with peace talks with the Afghan government launched earlier this month in the Pakistani hill station of Murree.
“Mullah Mansour is ... a moderate, pro-peace, pro-talks person,” said Abdul Hakim Mujahid, a former Taliban official and a member of the Afghan High Peace Council.
“I believe that under him the peace process will be strengthened and the Taliban will become part of political process in Afghanistan.”
* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Reuters
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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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