The regime of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has contributed to presidential campaigns in the US, Ukraine and France, reported Asharq Al Awsat newspaper on Monday.
The report said that the Qaddafi government put $5 million towards the campaign of a candidate who was running in the 2004 US elections. Another €4m was spent on the campaign of Yulia Tymoshenko, who ran in the 2010 Ukraine elections, it added.
The report also reiterated that Qaddafi spent almost €50m to fund the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007.
French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, who was present at Mr Sarkozy’s meeting with Qaddafi, said the “figures were much higher than that”, according to the daily.
Mr Sarkozy has repeatedly denied taking money from Qaddafi, who was captured and killed in 2011 after being deposed.
A close aide of Saif Al Islam — Qaddafi’s son, who was part of his father’s inner circle — said he was present during closed-door meetings between French and Libyan officials.
Mr Sarkozy had promised improved ties between France and Libya in return for the funding, he told the paper on condition of anonymity.
Read more: Britain arrests French suspect in Sarkozy financing probe
Negotiations reportedly took place at the Corinthia Hotel Tripoli and included discussions on dropping the case of the 1989 UTA Flight bombing that implicated Qaddafi’s brother-in-law, Abdullah Al Senussi.
"Of course Sarkozy was interior minister before he was elected president. He had arrived in Libya at the insistence of his aide, Claude Gueant, as well as Takieddine," the source told the paper.
"We felt while talking with him that he had great ambitions to become president of France. He asked for support from Libya to fund his campaign."
The US candidate was financed through a mediator, who was a close friend of Saif Al Islam and the US official, reported Asharq Al Awsat.
“The candidate had pledged to Tripoli that if he should win the elections, he would remove Libya off terrorism blacklists,” the newspaper reported.
“The financing of his campaign took place through transferring funds through a third country.
“The agreement between the Libyans and Americans took place after a meeting in the US city of Toledo in Idaho.”
Meanwhile, Al Islam’s aide said that he personally delivered funds for Ms Tymoshenko’s campaign.
“I had them in a briefcase and I travelled to Ukraine on a private jet. I arrived at Kiev airport and delivered the case to the deputy prime minister,” he said.
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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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