The arrival of Emmanuel Adebayor, pictured at Eastlands, has delighted his new teammate Roque Santa Cruz.
The arrival of Emmanuel Adebayor, pictured at Eastlands, has delighted his new teammate Roque Santa Cruz.

A City force to strike fear



DURBAN // The signing of Emmanuel Adebayor will raise the stakes for a striking spot at Manchester City even higher, but Roque Santa Cruz, who will be in the running for one of those spots, says it could be another decisive move in the club's bid to break into the top four of the Premier League. City, owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, are determined to compete with Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal for a Champions League place next season.

And Santa Cruz says the arrivals of Adebayor and Carlos Tevez from Arsenal and United respectively will help City bridge the gap that divides the top four clubs from the rest. The Paraguay international, the third top striker to be recruited by Mark Hughes this summer, added: "It's always a nice factor to have such a great player joining the team like Adebayor. "Besides him, we also have Tevez. He and Adebayor are a great improvement for our attack.

"We have brought in great strikers from teams who will also be challenging for one of those top four places, like Manchester United and Arsenal. "We are increasing our strength and taking away good players from them at the same time. So you are weakening them and that's the aim. "They will always get new players and try to replace the ones who have left, but we have to show we are as good as them or better."

With their physical presence, Santa Cruz and Adebayor may be similar in their styles, but the former Bayern Munich forward feels they can still team up together. "When you have such a talented squad you can play and make partnerships with any of the strikers," he said. "I am sure at times we will be playing together. You have a lot of physical teams in the Premier League so I won't be surprised if, for those games, they go with the two of us.

"We still like to play football too so it won't affect the team's style of play, but it will give us important physical presence." With Robinho, Craig Bellamy, Valeri Bojinov, Felipe Caicedo and Benjani also in contention for a striking role, Santa Cruz says the competition should encourage everyone to raise their game to claim a first-team spot. "The one thing I learned at Bayern is that every season there are going to be people complaining and people who are not happy with the situation [about playing regularly]," he added.

"But that comes with being successful and tells other people to raise their game. You have to use any frustration in the right way. You will have a challenge to do things that were better than what you were doing, so you can have the chance to play." Adebayor, who will join up with the team on their South African tour tomorrow, says he was motivated to join City by their ambition and that a top-four place is a realistic target this season.

"We have everything we need," he said. "The chairman and everyone at City want this club to be one of the best in the world. We will fight to be that. "I want to win silverware and trophies. That is my ambition. People who think that I have joined City for the money are wrong. If I had made a move for that reason then I would have been playing for Barcelona or Milan last season. They gave me bigger offers than Arsenal did for me to stay."

With an abundance of attackers, Hughes will now look to add to the defence. Despite having bids rejected, John Terry and Joleon Lescott still remain on the wish-list. @Email:akhan@thenational.ae

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Emergency

Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

Rating: 2/5

Cryopreservation: A timeline
  1. Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
  2. Ovarian tissue surgically removed
  3. Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
  4. Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
  5. Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
Profile Idealz

Company: Idealz

Founded: January 2018

Based: Dubai

Sector: E-commerce

Size: (employees): 22

Investors: Co-founders and Venture Partners (9 per cent)

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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners

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.”

Game Changer

Director: Shankar 

Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram

Rating: 2/5

War

Director: Siddharth Anand

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor

Rating: Two out of five stars 

If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.

When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.

How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.