Clark calls for more from Gulf

DUBAI // Such was the mood of optimism after the Arabian Gulf's triumph over Thailand on Wednesday night, David Clark, the long-serving No 8, was moved to deem it the best Gulf side he has ever captained. The 36-17 winning margin in the HSBC Asian Five Nations Division One opener did not flatter the home side. They dominated in every area of the game, and the two Thailand tries arrived via long-range breakaways in the second-half while the Gulf pressed for further scores of their own.

The Gulf have played and beaten better sides than Thailand in the past, but the manner in which this side went about their business was a noticeable improvement on anything that has gone before. Clark, who was restored to the captaincy this season following a one-year hiatus, said: "This is the first time I have been captain of a strong Arabian Gulf team. "We have seen some changes over the years. This is the first time we have seen some youth coming into the game. There are old heads, young heads, and some really fit guys out there. We are in a good position."

Tellingly, Clark ranked the performance as a mere six out of 10, and believes they must up their game if they are to earn promotion back to the top rank of Asian rugby by winning tomorrow's play-off with Chinese Taipei. "We still have a bit more to do," he added. "We let a bit of complacency come into our game in the second half and that is something we have to shore up. "We got to a level we wanted to reach by the end of the second-half and we let that slip. We know what needs to be done, we need to up it on Saturday."

After Karl Sutcliffe, the Muscat flanker, and the Abu Dhabi-born scrum-half Jonny MacDonald touched down early tries, the Gulf were never threatened. Luke Sinclair, Mike Cox-Hill and Clark also crossed the line as the host nation, who were reduced to 13 men at one stage during the second-half, ran out comfortable winners. Paul Beard, the Abu Dhabi full-back who rose to prominence during last year's Five Nations campaign, was flawless with the boot.

The win dispelled any remaining nerves for the side's new coach, Bruce Birtwistle, who was overseeing his first game in charge. "My nerves are now gone," said the Aucklander. "We played reasonably well in the first-half and got into the patterns of play that we had worked so hard on. "We thought we were getting on top of them at scrum-time and our line-out was working particularly well as well. "We were direct in our back-line attack, but we started to cough up a little ball and we lacked accuracy in the second-half. They scored a couple of tries, which went against the grain and that was upsetting. But now we have got the nerves out, it is probably not a bad first up performance for us."

pradley@thenational.ae

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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.

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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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How has net migration to UK changed?

The figure was broadly flat immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, standing at 216,000 in the year to June 2018 and 224,000 in the year to June 2019.

It then dropped to an estimated 111,000 in the year to June 2020 when restrictions introduced during the pandemic limited travel and movement.

The total rose to 254,000 in the year to June 2021, followed by steep jumps to 634,000 in the year to June 2022 and 906,000 in the year to June 2023.

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