Assad names new Syrian prime minister as protesters promise to continue

The Syrian president, Bashar al Assad, appointed his former agriculture minister, Adel Safar, as the country's prime minister yesterday and asked him to form a government, as thousands joined the funeral procession for protesters killed in Douma.

Mobile phone and internet networks failed for several hours yesterday "due to an overload", according to a customer representative, a day after authorities carried out a wave of arrests in pcities that had seen anti-government demonstrations.

Mr Assad asked Mr Safar to form a new government, the state-run news agency Sana reported, having sacked his entire cabinet in a bid to quell pro-democracy protests.

Meanwhile, Douma, a suburb north of Damascus still reeling from a fatal clampdown by security forces against pro-reform demonstrators, observed a group funeral with thousands of sympathisers streaming in from neighbouring towns.

"People are very sad," a resident said as the town buried eight people killed in a clampdown by security forces on Friday. "They want to make it up to the families so they are promising more protests."

On Friday, thousands of Syrians marched across the country after midday prayers, calling for reforms, disappointed by a presidential speech which failed to lift a state of emergency in place since 1963.

Eight human rights groups said 46 people were arrested in raids on the southern town of Daraa, one of the main centres of more than two weeks of demonstrations, as well as Douma, north of Damascus, and the industrial city of Homs.

In a joint statement, the rights groups said: "We condemn this extremely violent and unjustified way the Syrian security services dealt with peaceful rallies in Douma where police used excessive force against demonstrators,".

The rights groups reported that four people died and dozens were wounded in the clampdown. A human rights activist reported eight dead.

A witness said security forces used live ammunition to disperse stone-throwing protesters after noon prayers.

The authorities denied the security forces were responsible for the deaths, blaming them on an "armed group" which opened fire from rooftops on both demonstrators and police.

They acknowledged an unspecified number of deaths and said dozens were wounded, some of them policemen.

State television charged that "some of the demonstrators had daubed their clothes with red dye to make foreign reporters believe that they had been injured".

Some 200 people demonstrated outside the courthouse in Daraa, a town near the Jordan border, where security forces arrested eight people between a morning raid and a round-up after the protests.

Security forces carried out a series of raids in the area, another activist said, adding that an architect, Khaled al Hassan, a lawyer, Hassan al Aswad, and a teacher, Issam Mahameed, were among those detained.

Yusef Abu Rumiyeh, a member of parliament for Daraa, denounced security forces for opening fire on his constituents "without pity" and criticised President Assad for not offering his condolences.

The security forces "opened fire on the citizens of Daraa, killing and injuring them and preventing the wounded from getting to hospital", said Mr Rumiyeh, in a video uploaded on YouTube.

"The people of Hauran were waiting for President Assad to visit to offer his condolences. Had he done so, nothing that happened subsequently would have taken place."

In Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented 17 arrests, while authorities accused another "armed group" of firing on demonstrators in the industrial city and killing "one girl".

The rights group demanded the release of all prisoners of conscience and political prisoners, and called for measures to ensure the safety of peaceful protests.

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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.”