KUALA LUMPUR // Malaysian authorities on Thursday arrested two more suspects in the apparent assassination of North Korean leader’s Kim Jong-un’s half brother.
They were identified as Siti Aisyah, 25, an Indonesian citizen, and a Malaysian man who was believed to be her boyfriend.
Another woman holding Vietnamese travel documents was arrested on Wednesday at the budget terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport where Kim Jong-nam, who was 45 or 46, suddenly fell ill on Monday morning.
Malaysian officials said he died on the way to a hospital after telling medical workers at the airport that he had been sprayed with a chemical.
South Korean media reports, citing unidentified sources, said two women believed to be North Korean agents killed him with some kind of poison before fleeing in a taxi.
The two women arrested were identified using surveillance videos from the airport, but it was not immediately clear if they are believed to be the actual assassins.
Investigators are still piecing together details of the case, including the widespread assumption that Kim Jong-un dispatched a hit squad to kill his estranged half brother. Known for his love of gambling and casinos, Kim Jong-nam had lived abroad for years, aware he was a hunted man.
Malaysian authorities said on Thursday that they had completed an autopsy on Kim Jong-nam, despite objections from North Korea. The findings, which were not released, could confirm whether he was actually poisoned.
Indonesian diplomats met the woman arrested on Thursday and confirmed that she was an Indonesian citizen originally from Serang in Banten, a province that neighbours the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
Malaysian deputy home minister Zahid Hamidi said on Thursday that security was a top priority for the government and authorities had acted swiftly and efficiently.
Asked why Malaysia failed to protect Kim Jong-nam, Mr Zahid said: “What do you mean? Do we have to engage a bodyguard and usher him everywhere? No.”
Kim Jong-nam was estranged from his younger half brother, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and had been living abroad for years.
He was the son of Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s second leader, and Sung Hye Rim, an actress who analysts say was forced to divorce her first husband to live in secret with the future leader in 1970, a year before their son was born.
After Kim Jong-il’s death in 2011, Kim Jong-nam complained Kim Jong-un, who took over the North Korean leadership, was failing to treat him with respect and send him enough money, according to Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at South Korea’s Sejong Institute.
However, Kim Jong-nam refrained from openly criticising the North and kept a low profile after Kim Jong-un executed his uncle and former protector Jang Song-thaek, once considered the country’s second-most powerful person, in 2013.
South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, said North Korea had been trying for five years to kill Kim Jong-nam, and that he had sent a letter to Kim Jong-un in April 2012, begging for the lives of himself and his family.
According to agency officials, Kim Jong-nam leaves behind two sons and a daughter with two women living in Beijing and Macau.
* Associated Press
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.”
