This would have to be one of the most unusual arrangements in all of sport.
As the tension accumulates toward a start date tomorrow, the six yachts of the Volvo Ocean Race repose beside each other in the dock. They bob so close to each other that Carl Lewis probably could jump from one to the other in sequence.
From left to right in an inlet on the Mediterranean coast, just around the corner from the beach, their brightly painted bows all but glow: the Puma black (named Puma's Mar Mostro), the Groupama orange (Groupama 4), the Camper red-burgundy (Camper), the Abu Dhabi black (Azzam), the Telefonica blue (Telefonica) and the Team Sanya orange-yellow (Sanya). They have lived like this for much of October already, the crews eyeballing each other for hints ahead of the in-port race Saturday and the start of the first leg, Alicante to Cape Town, on November 5.
"In this sport, the tool is a big part of it," said Wade Morgan, the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing bowman and boat captain.
"They can see yours, you can see theirs. You spend a lot of time looking, hoping to figure out what they're doing."
He pointed out that in Formula One, team members are not allowed in enemy garages, yet for this gruelling-beyond-gruelling, nine-month, 39,000-nautical-mile race, everybody accesses the boats along the same little wharf.
There is even a bit of an art for staring indiscriminately, as the helmsman/trimmer, Simon Fisher, demonstrated by hunching over slightly as if pretending not to look.
"When we first arrived you sort of pull into the dock," he said, "and all the other teams are there. They're interested, but they don't want to appear too interested."
Teams might spot something on a rival tool and think: "We should have done that."
Morgan joked he had developed a brazen technique: "I just walk up," he said. "I ask them to point out something I might have missed. 'Any features you've been working on? Anything I should know about?'"
Making it odder still, the crews all know each other, and Fisher reckons he has sailed with "most of them" at some point or other.
Pointing to the Telefonica boat, just to the left shoulder of Azzam, he noted that he sailed for that very team last time around.
For demonstration, he pointed out the emergency rudder gudgeons affixed to the sterns on the Abu Dhabi boat Azzam and its next-door neighbours, Telefonica and Camper. Sure enough, each of the three boats had utilised a different construct for the emergency rudder gudgeons, even as each hoped never to have to use them, and even as it is not "a performance-related issue", according to Morgan.
As he spoke in the late afternoon, music played on loudspeakers throughout the area.
The public milled about, strolling and gawking.
The line of team hospitality areas rose from behind the stern, the Abu Dhabi house bright red featuring a greeter in a kandura.
Up on the hill back in town, the Castle of Santa Barbara pretty much hovered over things as ever (well, for the past 1,200 years or so).
Another practice day waned for Azzam.
Butti Al Muhairi, the 27-year-old reserve Emirati sailor and shore team member, donned a diving suit and plunged beneath the boat for cleaning, proving the capabilities of this former oil-rig hand might be boundless.
Paul Willcox, the South African reserve sailor, called the scene "very cool" as he anticipated duty Saturday for the in-port race, replacing the under-30 sailor Andrew Lewis, who has returned much of the way around the world to his home in Hawaii as his wife, Danielle, gave birth to a daughter, Taylor.
Lewis will return to start the first leg, that 6,500-mile trek that consumes all these windy minds at the moment.
"Actually the first leg is probably the most exciting," Fisher said. "There's a lot of anticipation, anxiousness. Basically we started this process nine months ago, and we're about to see if we've made the right decisions. …
"You can't draw any strong conclusions about our speed until we're partway into the first leg.
"In two weeks we'll have an idea, probably. Potentially that could set the tone for the next nine months."
Right about then, a photographer asked him if she could snap some shots of the inside of the boat.
Said Fisher, smiling as usual during a good-natured refusal. "That's the only bit we can hide."
cculpepper@thenational.ae
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.”
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
