Diners rush from a restaurant as an officer from the Philippines police moves towards the scene of an attempted robbery on a jewellery store inside SM Mall of Asia in Manila on March 30, 2014. Noel Celis / AFP
Diners rush from a restaurant as an officer from the Philippines police moves towards the scene of an attempted robbery on a jewellery store inside SM Mall of Asia in Manila on March 30, 2014. Noel CeShow more

World

Hammer-wielding robbers cause chaos at Manila mall

Shoppers and staff run screaming from SM Mall of Asia as attempted jewellery heist leads to shootout with police.

MANILA // Robbers armed with guns and hammers shot it out with Philippine police inside one of the world’s largest shopping malls on Sunday, sending Manila shoppers scrambling for safety, police and witnesses said.

Waves of police commandos in bullet-proof vests and helmets and armed with assault rifles stormed the SM Mall of Asia after the gang entered a jeweller’s shop inside.

Hundreds of frightened shoppers, waiters and shop clerks fled amid gunfire toward the exits of the nearly four-hectare complex of department stores, boutiques, restaurants and entertainment establishments by Manila Bay.

“We were in the grocery when we heard gunshots. We ran for the door immediately and my wife nearly fell with our 10-month-old boy,” said Stacy Mercado, 32.

“The security guards initially blocked us, apparently because they feared some of us would steal items off the shelves on our way out.

“But they were swept aside after another burst of gunfire,” he said as he and his family watched the unfolding police operation in early evening from behind yellow police lines outside.

Several people were screaming or crying, including parents who said they had been separated from their children or other family members in the chaos.

Police said no one was seriously hurt in the firefight, and at least four armed suspects had been arrested.

The rest of the gang apparently escaped, they said.

“This is a common tactic. These robbers would go into a shop and start smashing the display cases with a hammer to grab things inside,” Erwin Villacorta, district police chief in southern Manila, told the local television station ABS-CBN.

Several other Manila shopping malls have been attacked in similar fashion in recent years, which led the interior ministry last December to ban Manila malls from selling hammers.

Opened in 2006, the Mall of Asia has 407,000 square metres of retail space, making it the country’s second largest, as well as one of the world’s largest, shopping destinations.

Mall of Asia is part of the SM Supermalls retail chain controlled by the family of Henry Sy, the Philippines’ richest man.

* Agence France Presse

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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