Celtic win pleases Lennon but manager feels players should have scored more

Neil Lennon, the Celtic manager, felt his team were over-elaborate in the final third of the field before Anthony Stokes earned them league victory at Aberdeen.

Celtic struggled to create a clear opening before Kris Commons dispossessed Richard Foster and set up Stokes to sweep home the only goal from 10 yards in the 74th minute.

Lennon said: "We made it nervous for ourselves because we had so many chances and our decision-making on the final bit was poor. We worked the ball great, kept getting in between their midfield and back four and then we tried to walk the ball in the net at times.

"It's a bad habit to have and we have to get out of it. I said at half-time we needed to be patient, we would take 1-0 and that happened to be the case. But I felt our play deserved better, overall we were very, very good."

Lennon, who lost left-back Emilio Izaguirre to a broken leg in the first half, added: "I didn't think we toiled, we were just wasteful in the final third.

"We worked the ball to Kris in good positions on numerous occasions and we kept failing.

"But we kept going and Kris is always a threat and he did brilliantly for the goal."

Lennon claimed his players were guilty of over-elaborating in training too, but he said: "I'm not overly concerned, we always felt we would score with the players we have in the team."

Craig Brown, the Aberdeen manager said: "I think we did enough to get at least a point.

"We actually just committed suicide towards the end of the game, it was a careless error that cost us the game. Some think it might have been an infringement but I would need to see it again."

When asked if Foster claimed the challenge was illegal, Brown said: "He thought it was a foul but he would think that."

Aberdeen's Scott Vernon had a good chance in either half, Lukasz Zaluska blocking his first effort, before the Englishman failed to make meaningful contact with Darren Mackie's cross.

"I think we actually made the best chance of the game when [Josh] Magennis headed on to Mackie who crossed across the face of goal and if Scott Vernon had got a touch it might have been a different result," Brown said. "We were depleted and I thought the lads who played gave us a shift and didn't deserve to lose."

Motherwell stay one point clear of Celtic at the top of the league after they beat Hearts 1-0 on Sunday.

French business

France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.

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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.”