Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman leaves New York on Friday after week-long visit that took Riyadh "out of its comfort zone" with corporate, bipartisan and inter-religious meetings, and saw the signing of ambitious stock and energy agreements.
Prince Mohammed heads next to Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, where he is expected to break precedent in meetings with the entertainment industry, including Ari Emanuel, the co-chief executive of William Morris Endeavor, and possibly Oprah Winfrey. While some reports suggested that the crown prince would meet Barack Obama, the former former US president was on a trip to Asia before he was spotted in Oahu, Hawaii on Tuesday.
In New York, Prince Mohammed met former secretaries of state John Kerry and Henry Kissinger, and the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He also reportedly met former president Bill Clinton and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. On Thursday he held talks with representatives of the UN Security Council's five permanent members and Germany, all parties to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
On the corporate and financial side, the Saudi crown prince held talks with more than 50 executives and investors, as well as media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Centre for American Progress, said the meetings with key Democrats was a "sign that the Saudi leadership realises that they are perceived to have been too close to Donald Trump and [his son-in-law] Jared Kushner and they need to maintain open dialogue with the full political spectrum in US".
Prince Mohammed is showing a "pragmatic understanding that the US is an open democracy" and is attempting "to address Saudi's own political vulnerabilities with Democrats on issues related to the war in Yemen and the nuclear deal with Iran", Mr Katulis told The National.
On the perception of Saudi Arabia, Mr Katulis said the crown prince's meetings "in their own small way are making a difference", especially on the association of the kingdom with conservative Islam. In an interview with the Washington Post, Prince Mohammed decried attempts to hijack Islam. In New York, he met a group of inter-religious leaders that included the Most Reverend Bernardito Cleopas Auza, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations; Bishop James Massa, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn; Rabbi Steven Wernick, chief executive of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism; Rabbi Richard Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism; and Allen Fagin, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.
"He is stepping out of the usual comfort zone [for Saudi Arabia], especially if you compare to previous Saudi visits that were confined to the political and military-industrial side of Washington," said Mr Katulis.
The crown prince was seen in a business suit grabbing a coffee with Mr Bloomberg in downtown Manhattan.
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On the economic side, news that Saudi Arabia's stock market will join FTSE Russell's emerging market index next year and a memorandum of understanding with SoftBank Group to build a $200 billion solar power project were two major headlines from the trip.
Karen Young, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, said the FTSE inclusion was a "welcome change from Frontier to Emerging Market status for the Kingdom, which will attract passive investors in funds around the world to buy into Saudi companies".
"The challenge now is for Saudi Arabia to include more companies in its stock exchange, which increases the pressure on the government to allow the private sector to flourish and compete with state entities, and for private investors (and foreign investors) to be allowed to create and buy new businesses in the country," Ms Young told The National.
On the solar power agreement, she said: “There will be lot of opportunity in power development and Saudi Arabia needs to use renewable sources, and alternative finance sources.”
Ms Young noted the ambitious goal of 200 gigawatts, which exceeds Saudi Arabia’s needs “even with growing demand past 2030".
“The idea is that Saudi Arabia would be a mass electricity exporter to the region, perhaps to the Red Sea/Egypt and beyond. But that is a very big if”, she said.
On his next stop in Seattle, Prince Mohammed will meet Microsoft executives and its principal founder, Bill Gates.
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
The specs
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Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
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Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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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Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Director: Akarsh Khurana
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
Rating: 4/5
