The death of Anwar Al Awlaki will have a significant effect on Al Qaeda's most dangerous offshoot, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which operates in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
AQAP will now find it harder to recruit, inspire and raise money, experts said.
The demise of the US-born radical cleric will also deepen the sense of doom among other key Al Qaeda figures across the region. Their ranks have been greatly shrunk by a devastating, 18-month US drone campaign.
"Awlaki's death is extremely significant," said Abdelbari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab daily al-Quds Al-Arabi, based in London.
"He was charismatic, a very good speaker in both English and Arabic, and he knew how to talk to the new generation of Al Qaeda," said Mr Atwan, the author of The Secret History of Al Qaeda.
Jason Burke, another Al Qaeda expert, agreed Al Awlaki's death was significant because he was one of the organisation's few leaders who "could bridge the gap between the West and the Middle East".
But Mr Burke cautioned there was a danger of overestimating Al Awlaki's importance because of his high profile in the West.
"His primary role was propaganda and the dissemination of ideology, not operations," the author of The September 11 Wars said. "So the impact is going to be more in the realm of those more intangible elements."
IntelCenter, a private US company that monitors jihadist organisations, said that despite Al Awlaki's death AQAP still poses a "direct threat to the US".
It added the group's leader, Nasir Al Wuhayshi, who is blamed for planning attacks on US territory, remains at large.
But Mr Al Wuhayshi will be scared. And while he is watching his back, it will be harder for him to plan terrorist attacks on the US.
Unmanned US drones have been killing Al Qaeda leaders faster than they can be replaced.
In August, a drone strike killed Atiyah Abd Al Rahman, the Al Qaeda deputy, in Pakistan's tribal areas.
A month earlier, the US defence secretary Leon Panetta proclaimed the US was "within reach of strategically defeating Al Qaeda". Washington's focus, Mr Panetta said, would be to kill or capture between 10 and 20 key members of the terrorist network in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia.
He singled out as prime targets Osama bin Laden's uninspiring, Egyptian-born successor, Ayman Al Zawahiri - and Al Awlaki, the first US citizen to be marked for assassination by the CIA.
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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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BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Cologne v Hoffenheim (11.30pm)
Saturday
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Mainz v Union Berlin (6.30pm)
Paderborn v Augsburg (6.30pm)
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Sunday
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SC Freiburg v Eintracht Frankfurt (9on)
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