CAIRO // Ibrahim Eissa, one of the country's most vocal opposition writers, was fired from his newspaper job, in what some observers say is part of a government clampdown on private media a month before legislative elections.
Eissa, 45, on Monday was fired as the editor of the prominent opposition daily Al-Dustour, by its new owners. "I feel I've watched this movie before and I can handle it better now. "The regime is making a clear statement: instead of preventing vote rigging, they are silencing talking about it," he said. "I feel sorry for the Egyptian press and media." Eissa said he had argued on Monday with the new owners, who asked him not to publish a column by the opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei in the edition of the paper to be published today.
"I rejected [their argument] of course, and before I resigned, they fired me." Al-Dustour was purchased in August by ElSayed el Badawi and Reda Edward. Mr el Badawi is the owner of Al-Hayat, a private TV channel and the newly elected leader of Al-Wafd, Egypt's oldest liberal party. Mr el Badawi bought Al-Dustour shortly after he was elected to the party post. Al-Wafd is expected to field a large number of candidates in the elections next month.
Mr ElBaradei's column, which was published on the internet by groups supporting him, was to coincide with ceremonies marking the Arab-Israeli war of 1973. "Unfortunately, 37 years after October victory, we have progressed neither politically nor economically and our social and cultural problems have become deeper," Mr ElBaradei wrote. Mr ElBaradei, 68, is the former executive director of the UN nuclear agency. He returned to Egypt in February and has been demanding reform and calling for a boycott of the elections. Al-Dustour had been giving Mr ElBaradei a platform.
At the paper's Cairo office, reporters said they were the only ones who showed up for work yesterday; editors and management staff were absent. The paper's journalists criticised Eissa's dismissal. "Without Ibrahim Eissa the paper will be tasteless, colourless and odourless," they said in a statement posted on the paper's website. Abdel Moneim Mahmoud, a reporter at Al-Dustour, said the new owners had taken computers from the newspaper's offices to an unknown place so they could publish the paper.
Mr el Badawi held a press conference at which he resigned as the chief of the board of the newspaper, but he did not name a new editor. He said Eissa could write a weekly column in Al-Dustour. The paper has been critical of the government and been known for breaking political, social and religious taboos since it opened in 1995. The government closed it in 1998. The paper hit the newsstands again in 2005 amid the liberal reforms of that year.
Also yesterday, the weekly column by the novelist Alaa al Aswany was not published in the independent daily Al-Shorouk. Last weekend, Eissa was withdrawn as the host of a popular talk show on a private satellite TV station. That move was criticised by the Journalists' Union as "an organised attack on media freedoms". It also "expressing deep concerns about reported pressure from the regime" barring Eissa from the talk show shortly after Cairo Today, a prime time talk show, was taken off the Saudi-owned Orbit channel.
Anas el Fiqqi, the minister of information, said the Cairo Today decision two weeks ago had no political dimension and was only because the network had not paid its bills. Amr Adeeb, of Orbit TV, acknowledged there had been an "administrative misunderstanding", but said the network had since paid all its bills.
nmagd@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by the 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.”
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