Tallying the results

Although investable assets of the Middle East’s most wealthy in 2010 are back to their 2007 level of $1.7 trillion, according to the Capgemini and Merrill Lynch’s World Wealth Report (WWR), return expectations and attitudes have changed considerably. In particular, Ultra High Net Worth individuals (UHNWIs), a category comprising households with over $50 million in investable assets, have shifted their focus to capital preservation through less risky, simple investments. “UHNW investors are starting to understand that probably in the near-and-medium-term, returns will be smaller than in the past… and also what they want to achieve is to protect the assets which they have and then tactically invest in distressed opportunities,” said Heiner Weber, who heads the Middle East desk at Falcon Private Bank.  Largest global private banks in 2010 In fact, rising fears of another global recession in 2011 come at a time when the Middle East’s High Net Worth