Sport

Colin McRae and four more of the greatest drivers to do the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge

Gary Meenaghan

July 01, 2015

Gary Meenaghan looks back at some of the biggest names in motorsport who have participated in the Abu Dhabi – originally UAE – Desert Challenge.

Colin McRae

The Scotsman is likely best remembered as the star of video game Colin McRae Rally, which was released in 1998 and is viewed as a pioneer for sports racing games. Son of a five-time British Rally champion, McRae became his country’s first World Rally champion when he won the title in 1995 in a Subaru Impreza 555. He raced in the 2004 UAE Desert Challenge in a Nissan pick-up. In 2007, he was to return and compete against his brother, Alistair, but died in a helicopter crash close to his home in Lanark, Scotland, one month before the event. He was 39.

Ari Vatanen

The Finn won the 1981 World Rally Championship for Rothmans Rally Team in a Ford Escort RS1800. Six years later, he began a remarkable run of Dakar Rally dominance that resulted in him winning four titles in five years between 1987 and 1991. In 1997, on his UAE Desert Challenge debut and alongside co-driver Fred Gallagher, Vatanen won in a Citroen ZX RR.

Stephane Peterhansel

Few people have dominated cross-country rally quite like the Frenchman. Peterhansel holds the record for having taken the most stage wins at the Dakar Rally (65) and has won the race 11 times since 1991. He first raced in Abu Dhabi in 1996, triumphing atop a Yamaha M3 motorbike. Over the course of the next 19 years, he won a further five Desert Challenge titles behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi Pajero, a Mitsubishi Evo and a Mini All4 Racing.

Carlos Sainz

Nobody has competed in more World Rally Championship races than the Spaniard. Sainz, a two-time winner of the WRC drivers’ title, has competed in the Desert Challenge several times over the years without making it on to the top step of the podium. He finished second in 2007, but won the Dakar Rally in 2010 with Volkswagen. His son, Carlos Sainz Jr, is this season competing in Formula One with Toro Rosso.

Jean-Louis Schlesser

A one-time Formula One driver, the Frenchman competed in the 1988 Italian Grand Prix and was blamed for ruining McLaren’s 100 per cent record after colliding with the Brazilian Ayrton Senna. Schlesser switched to sports cars and off-road racing and has won the Desert Challenge six times dating back to 1994, when he competed in his own custom-built Buggy Schlesser. He won the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup five times from 1998 through to 2002 and the Dakar Rally twice, in 1999 and 2000.

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UAE SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Adel Al Hosani

Defenders: Bandar Al Ahbabi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Mohammed Barghash, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Hassan Al Mahrami, Yousef Jaber, Salem Rashid, Mohammed Al Attas, Alhassan Saleh

Midfielders: Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Abdullah Al Naqbi, Majed Hassan, Yahya Nader, Ahmed Barman, Abdullah Hamad, Khalfan Mubarak, Khalil Al Hammadi, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Harib Abdallah, Mohammed Jumah, Yahya Al Ghassani

Forwards: Fabio De Lima, Caio Canedo, Ali Saleh, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri

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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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