TANGIERS, Morocco // Emilio Rodriguez runs a small construction company in Tangiers in northern Morocco where, like many other Spaniards, he has moved in search of fresher professional pastures.
"In Spain at the moment things are going badly," he says.
"Over there I sold everything. There is no work, no bank financing," adds Mr Rodriquez, who moved to Morocco's port city of Tangiers, just spitting distance from the southern tip of Spain, at the beginning of 2012.
For decades Moroccans have been migrating abroad in search of better lives - they form one of the largest immigrant populations in Europe - and Spain hosts the second biggest community.
Over the years, Spaniards have also crossed in the opposite direction, looking for business opportunities.
However, the severe crisis in the Spanish economy has seen a noticeable rise in the flow of people heading south, say social workers.
Numbers are difficult to assess because many Spaniards arrive as tourists and return to their homeland every three months to collect their unemployment benefits and ensure they do not overstay their visas.
Official figures show that 2,660 Spaniards registered for social security in Morocco in 2012, slightly up from 2,507 in 2011, but the numbers actually living and working in the country are believed to be far higher.
At a macroeconomic level, Morocco's key trading partners are Spain and France, the former colonial power that divided and ruled the country as a protectorate.
On Monday, Spanish King Juan Carlos will begin a three-day state visit to Morocco.
His visit reflects the close diplomatic ties between Madrid and Rabat that have steadily improved in the more than five decades since the North African country achieved independence.
Jose Manuel Fernandez is among the newcomers exploring what Morocco has to offer.
"I came to see how it goes here. I saw there were lot of facilities, ways of doing things to develop the country, especially in the construction" sector, says Mr Fernandez, who works for a Spanish company that specialises in building golf courses.
But Morocco has economic woes of its own.
Despite a growth rate in recent years of between 2.5 and 5 per cent, which is closely linked to annual agricultural output, youth unemployment stands at more than 20 per cent.
This has not deterred the Spanish hopefuls.
"I arrived in Tangiers with my daughter three months ago. I'm looking for a job," says Marian Gallande as she sips mint tea in a cafe not far from the old port.
For her too, life in Spain had become difficult.
"I earned €1,000 (Dh4,800) a month, but the cost of living is too high there," she says.
"I prefer to be in Tangiers. Spain is my country, it's true," she adds, watching the ships leaving Tangiers, "but I am more at ease here, where society is not closed as some people think."
Social workers say that some Spaniards work in call centres for wages between €400 to €500 per month, while many are employed in small businesses, especially in the construction sector — one of those most affected by the economic crisis in Spain.
"Many work informally and regularly travel to Spain to receive unemployment benefits and to avoid being illegal" in Morocco, where the law restricts a tourist's stay to three months, says a young Spanish intern with a local NGO.
The Moroccan interior ministry, in an attempt to keep a tighter rein on the process, has urged Spanish newcomers to comply with all the required formalities.
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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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