Ali Mabkhout, second left, celebrates with teammates after scoring for Al Jazira against Al Ahli. Courtesy AGL
Ali Mabkhout, second left, celebrates with teammates after scoring for Al Jazira against Al Ahli. Courtesy AGL

Sport

Al Jazira offer reminder of AGL title credentials with win over champions Al Ahli

Al Jazira underlined their status as Arabian Gulf League title challengers with a convincing 2-0 win over champions Al Ahli on Saturday night at the Mohammed bin Zayed stadium.

Amith Passela
Amith Passela

November 19, 2016

ABU DHABI // Al Jazira underlined their status as Arabian Gulf League title challengers with a convincing 2-0 win over champions Al Ahli on Saturday night at the Mohammed bin Zayed stadium.

UAE striker Ali Mabkhout provided Jazira with the perfect start when he put the home side ahead on the 10th minute before Khalfan Mubarak doubled the lead on 35 minutes.

Mark Boussoufa, the Moroccan international, was given his marching orders after a second bookable offence on the 66th minute, but that did not diminish Jazira’s spirit as they put up a solid defence to hold the Ahli attack at bay.

The result took Jazira’s tally to 17 points and consolidated second position, one behind Al Wasl.

Meanwhile, Al Wahda were left to rue two missed penalties in a 1-1 draw with Kalba.

Sebastian Tagliabue’s kick was saved by Kalba goalkeeper Ibrahim Essa in added time of the first half and Ismail Matar sent his effort wide in the 90th minute.

Both teams had a player sent off in late on: Kalba’s Yaqoub Al Blooshi was shown a second yellow card in the 84th minute before Tagliabue was sent off five minutes later.

While Wahda were wasteful, it was the visitors who struck first through Modibo Maiga. Mohammed Al Menhali levelled seven minutes later.

Javier Aguirre, the Wahda manager, said he “lost two years of his age”.

“We lost two points,” he said. “It is not normal that you miss penalties but it was one of those days that nothing went right for us. We missed easy goals including two penalties. Their goalkeeper was outstanding.

“In our last match against Sharjah, we had less shots at goal than this game but scored seven. We had at least 10 scoring opportunities in this game and we couldn’t win.”

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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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