Queen Elizabeth II dies — follow the latest news as the world mourns
King Charles III reportedly started his working day when he was Prince Charles with a breakfast of fruit salad, seeds and tea that lasted him until 5pm.
His former press secretary, Julian Payne, has given a fascinating insight into the king's daily routine.
During the king's six decades as Prince of Wales, Mr Payne said his day at Clarence House was planned with precision by the hour — with no lunch taken.
Rumours that the king had a long line of boiled eggs to choose from every morning were false, Mr Payne said. Instead, he began his day by listening to the BBC radio news followed by a breakfast “of seasonal fruit salad and seeds with tea”, Mr Payne wrote in the Sunday Times.
Intriguingly, he also revealed that the king has a pair of shoes made from Russian reindeer leather “salvaged from a 200-year-old shipwreck in Plymouth Sound”.
Office work began with 45-minute charity or constitutional meetings — although that will dramatically change now he is monarch. As Prince of Wales, he insisted on thorough briefings. “He would invite the best brains and the most experienced people in to listen to their ideas and advice,” Mr Payne wrote.
No longer will he write the “spider memos” — a leaked selection of which were published in 2015 — in which he put across views gathered from his interactions with the public and sent them to senior government members. Instead, he will have direct access to the prime minister with weekly audiences lasting up to an hour. These are a vital moment in the politician’s life, in which they can talk in confidence and without judgement.
Those who tried to dazzle the king with intellect or social station had little effect, Mr Payne said. “He doesn’t draw a distinction between the well-heeled and those who have the toughest of lives. He’s interested in people, not position," he said.
That egalitarian approach was captured when they visited the set of the James Bond film No Time To Die. Instead of going straight to the film's protagonist Daniel Craig, the Prince of Wales at the time “kept stopping to speak to the set designers, the security guards and just about everyone else. Each person — star or not — was treated with exactly the same courtesy”.
Mr Payne described the king as having “an incredibly sharp memory” that required staff to take “copious notes” to avoid missing a minor detail which he would later bring up.
At 1pm, the king would take a break but would not have lunch. Instead, King Charles, who does not like being inside for too long, would go for a walk, either in the gardens of Buckingham Palace or in the acres surrounding Highgrove or Balmoral. This was always “at a pace that people half his age struggle to match”.
His work continued until his first real pause in the day at 5pm, when he had a cup of tea with his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, and enjoy "sandwiches and a piece of fruit cake”. The king shared his late mother’s thrift by putting leftovers in a Tupperware box.
More engagements would continue until dinner “at 8.30pm sharp”, before the king would return to his desk at 10pm and usually work until midnight.
At times, he went straight from an evening engagement on to a plane, once travelling to America for the four-hour funeral of former US president George HW Bush.
The king is supported by a dedicated team who have been with him for decades and are “some of the most loyal, kind and funny people,” Mr Payne said.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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.”
'Outclassed in Kuwait'
Taleb Alrefai,
HBKU Press
