Strange object seen above Costa Rica as China investigates spy balloon claims

An unidentified white object was spotted in the skies above Costa Rica on Thursday as the US military reported tracking a suspected Chinese hot-air surveillance balloon flying over the northern United States.

On Friday, the Pentagon confirmed reports that a similar balloon was "transiting Latin America", without specifying its location.

"We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon," Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said.

Pictures and videos of the object seen from Costa Rica were shared on social media — with some users in the country speculating that it may have come from space.

Twitter user Eduardo Costa said the “UFO was also seen in Costa Rica” while Manuel Hernandez said it could be seen from the towns of Zapote and Grecia in the Alajuela Province.

The Centre for Research in Atomic, Nuclear and Molecular Sciences (Cicanum) at the University of Costa Rica regularly launches helium-inflated balloons, according to La Nation newspaper, but researchers at the institution said they had not launched a balloon on Thursday.

“We always do it in co-ordination with Civil Aviation, through a project with Nasa for the validation of satellite instruments and this balloon that was seen today does not really belong to us,” said Cicanum director Elian Conejo.

He said the last one released by the institution was on January 27.

He said the type of balloon spotted on Thursday was a “tethered balloon” which could have been used for meteorological measurements.

The discovery of the Chinese balloon over the US prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone his planned visit to China at the weekend.

China on Friday acknowledged launching the high-altitude balloon, saying it was used for weather research and had been inadvertently blown off course.

A senior defence official told Pentagon reporters that the US had “very high confidence” that the balloon was flying over sensitive sites to collect information.

The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday it was tracking a balloon spotted on the Canadian border a few days previously. It later entered US airspace in the state of Montana.

The US government “has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now”, Gen Ryder said.

The sighting in North America sparked concerns over surveillance and intelligence gathering.

“Once the balloon was detected, the US government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” he said.

He said similar balloon sightings have occurred in recent years.

NBC first reported the news, with defence officials saying leaders had debated shooting it down.

AP later reported that the military had decided not to shoot it down because of possible debris.

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.”