Around Europe, Player of the Week: Torino’s Joe Hart

Once an emblematic figurehead of Manchester City’s rise to the summit of English football, Joe Hart found himself suddenly and very publicly demoted when City’s new manager Pep Guardiola took over in the summer. “I did not have a lot options,” Hart said. He could remain at City as an understudy to the arriving Claudio Bravo. Or he could try something different.

A first for Serie A

The most attractive of his offers came from Italy. Torino, ambitious to challenge for a European qualifying position, suggested taking Hart, who turns 30, on a year-long loan. In September, he became the first English goalkeeper to appear in Italy’s top division.

Mihajlovic the bold

For Torino’s manager, Sinisa Mihajlovic, Guardiola’s declaration that Hart did not meet his desire for a keeper with precise passing ability with his feet seemed unimportant. He liked Hart’s shot-stopping and natural authority. The Serbian coach is making a habit of bold decisions with goalkeepers. Last season, while he was in charge at AC Milan, Mihajlovic promoted 16-year-old Gianluigi Donnarumma to the first team. Donnarumma has made the spot his own.

Teething troubles

Hart, a Premier League winner twice with City and still England’s first-choice keeper, with 67 caps, made his first appearance away at Atalanta, a defeat in which a fumbled failure to catch a high ball contributed to a defeat. But successive clean sheets followed and some excellent saves in a win over Roma began a fine run of form for keeper and team. Torino sat seventh in the table going into this weekend.

Gigi and Joe

And this weekend, for Torino fans, is the big weekend of the domestic season so far. They meet Juventus, city rivals, reigning champions and Serie A pacesetters. The respective goalkeepers go back. Juve captain Gigi Buffon has spoken of his admiration for Hart. Hart has named Buffon as a role model. The enduring Italian No 1, who has 100 more caps than his English counterpart, was the victor when the two were involved a penalty shoot-out for a place in the semi-final of Euro 2012. They were on opposite sides last season when Juve twice beat Hart’s City in the Uefa Champions League group phase.

Turin test

No question about the favourites tomorrow. Juventus have won all but one of their last 10 meetings with their neighbours. And – Hart take heed – no Torino goalkeeper has kept a clean sheet in the derby since February 2008.

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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021

Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.

The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.

These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.

“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.

“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.

“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.

“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”

Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.

There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.

“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.

“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.

“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”

How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

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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