Jonas Vingegaard won a thrilling stage 11 of the Tour de France ahead of overall leader Tadej Pogacar in Massif Central on Wednesday.
It came down to a sprint finish between the two in Le Lioran but for once Pogacar came off second best as defending champion Vingegaard took the line by half a wheel.
That was after the tireless Vingegaard had clawed back the 30-second advantage Pogacar had built up after an attack on the Pas de Peyrol, some 30km from the finish of this 211 kilometre stage that started in Evaux-les-Bains.
Vingegaard remains third overall after Remco Evenepoel fought his way to the line to keep hold of second place, but the result shows the Dane is back in top form in his first race since suffering horrible injuries in a crash in the Basque Country in April.
“Of course it’s very, very emotional for me,” Vingegaard said. “Coming back from the crash, it means a lot. All the things I went through in the last few months, it makes you think of that and I would never have been able to do this without my family.
“I couldn’t follow the attack [of Pogacar] had, it was very, very strong, and I just had to fight. I didn’t think I would be able to make it back, I just kept fighting and I made it back. I was a bit surprised I could beat him in the sprint but of course it means so much.
“I never thought I would be able to do this three months ago.”
Pogacar did extend his overall lead, now 66 seconds over Evenepoel with Vingegaard another eight seconds back, but the Slovenian was left wondering how his plan to take total control of this race fell apart.
The second longest stage of this Tour had been earmarked as one for a breakaway but Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates clearly had other ideas. It took 80km for a small group including Ireland’s Ben Healy and Scotland’s Oscar Onley to get away, but they were never given the opportunity to build a lead.
Having been guided up the category one climb of the of the Peyrol by his teammates, Pogacar launched his move 600 metres from the summit and quickly distanced himself from his rivals, a gap that only grew on the descent.
Pogacar began the Col de Pertus with an advantage of just over 30 seconds, but after Vingegaard left behind Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic, he ate into the Slovenian’s lead before catching him just before the summit to set up a sprint for the bonus seconds on offer.
Pogacar narrowly won that one but it would be a different story on the finish line. Pogacar sat on Vingegaard’s wheel until the final 150m, but did not have the power to overhaul him.
Behind them, Evenepoel and Roglic had clawed back some of the deficit that had reached 50 seconds at one point, with Evenepoel finishing 25 seconds down on the front two in order to narrowly hold on to second place overall.
Roglic crashed on the final run into town, but was subsequently awarded the same time as Evenepoel with the incident coming inside the final three kilometres of the stage.
Stage 11 results
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) 4 hrs 58 mins 00 secs
2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) Same time
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal-Quick Step) +25secs
4. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe +55secs
5. Giulio Ciccone (Ita/Lidl-Trek) +1min 47 secs
6. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates) +1mins 49 secs
7. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) Same time
8. Mikel Landa (Spa/Soudal-Quick Step ”
9. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 55 secs
10. Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +2mins 38 secs
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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