Winner of the Tour de Suisse Mattias Skjelmose, centre, celebrates on the podium with second-placed Juan Ayuso, right, and Remco Evenepoel, who was third. AP
Winner of the Tour de Suisse Mattias Skjelmose, centre, celebrates on the podium with second-placed Juan Ayuso, right, and Remco Evenepoel, who was third. AP
Winner of the Tour de Suisse Mattias Skjelmose, centre, celebrates on the podium with second-placed Juan Ayuso, right, and Remco Evenepoel, who was third. AP
Winner of the Tour de Suisse Mattias Skjelmose, centre, celebrates on the podium with second-placed Juan Ayuso, right, and Remco Evenepoel, who was third. AP

Sport

UAE Team Emirates rider Juan Ayuso pays tribute to Gino Mader after Tour de Suisse

Spaniard wins final stage but ends overall classification nine seconds behind Mattias Skjelmose as both dedicate victories to Swiss colleague

The National

June 18, 2023

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  • Arabic

UAE Team Emirates rider Juan Ayuso paid tribute to Gino Mader after winning Sunday's final Tour de Suisse stage and finishing second in the general classification.

The Spaniard admitted to having mixed feelings following his victory in the time-trial and finishing the event nine seconds behind overall race winner Mattias Skjelmose.

Organisers had decided to finish the race despite the death on Friday of Mader, who failed to recover from the injuries he sustained after a horrific crash the previous day.

The 26-year-old's Bahrain Victorious team announced on Saturday that they had withdrawn from the race along with the Tudor Pro Cycling and Intermarche teams.

Organisers had consulted both the teams and the rider's family before deciding to finish the race.

Skjelmose of Trek-Segafredo embarked on the final day's individual time-trial kitted out in the leader's yellow jersey and, although he was beaten on the day by 20-year-old Ayuso, did enough to take the overall title.

“[My feelings are] a bit mixed. Of course, not because I won the stage, it's the second TT win this year so I'm happy that I keep improving in this type of racing style,” said Ayuso.

“The primary goal was to win the GC and I came second so it's a bit of a pity, but Mattias was super strong and we have to just congratulate him.

“Of course, I wanted to get the GC [for] Gino but also the stage – he will be happy for me. Of course, this goes for him. Racing is a bit more on the side.

“You don't feel like celebrating. It's not what comes to you, but I think everybody here gave their best for Gino. Mattias is for sure thinking of him to give the GC for him and I'm happy to win to try to honour his memory.”

The 22-year-old Skelmose. who took the overall lead on Tuesday. dedicated the race win to "Gino".

“Gino is dead, and I think everything combined just made me very emotional. It just needed to come out after the finish line,” said the visibly moved Dane.

“I always race to win and I think even if I had a disadvantage in the skinsuit I proved that my shape is good and that I'm ready for the Tour. I always believed in this.

“It's a lot of big emotions. It's a combination of a lot of sacrifice for me and, of course, Gino is dead, and I think everything combined just made me very emotional. It just needed to come out after the finish line.

“For me, the most important thing was that Gino's parents and family wanted the race to go on and for us to race as normal. That put my mind at rest.”

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.”

Updated: June 18, 2023, 4:26 PM
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