Cristiano Ronaldo suffered another blow at Al Nassr when his side were dumped out of the King’s Cup semi-finals on Monday night by 10-men Al Wehda.
Nassr, who sit three points off the Saudi Pro League summit following last week’s derby defeat to Al Hilal, were outdone in Riyadh by a 23rd-minute bicycle kick from Jean-David Beauguel.
Ronaldo, who signed for Nassr in December on a hugely lucrative deal, did have chances to get his side back into it, but left Mrsool Park visibly disappointed with the result.
Wehda will now take on Hilal in the next month's final, while Nassr must dust themselves off for the resumption of their title bid later this week.
The Riyadh club, currently with Dinko Jelicic as caretaker coach after Rudi Garcia’s dismissal earlier this month, sit second in the table with six matches remaining, although leaders Ittihad do have a game in hand.
Nassr, who won the last of their nine top-flight titles four years ago, are next in action in the league on Thursday, with a home clash against 11th-placed Al Raed.
Against Wehda on Monday, Ronaldo had the first sight of goal on nine minutes, but dragged wide a low, left-footed shot from around 25 yards out. Soon after, he forced a fine save from Munir Mohamedi with a back-post header.
Yet Wehda took the lead midway through the first half, when a mix-up between Nassr goalkeeper Nawaf Al Aqidi and defender Alvaro Gonzalez allowed Beauguel to send an unchallenged acrobatic effort into the hosts’ net.
Before the half was out, Nassr top-scorer Anderson Talisca drove high over the Wehda crossbar from range, while Ali Al Hassan flashed a shot across the visitors’ goal.
Ronaldo, who had failed to score in his previous three matches, did not hide his frustration as he left the pitch at half time, making known his feelings to members of the Nassr backroom staff.
Moments into the second half, the Portuguese forward again had a back-post header saved superbly by Mohamedi. Ronaldo could only shake his head in disbelief.
On 52 minutes, Wehda were reduced to 10 men when Abdullah Al Hafith was shown a second yellow card, this time for bringing down Ronaldo as he shaped to shoot. Ronaldo fired the resultant free-kick high beyond the Wehda goal.
Just after the hour, Al Hassan shot straight at Mohamedi from the angle, and Abdulrahman Ghareeb then pulled a shot wide as Mohamedi and his defence failed to clear a high ball.
Ronaldo, though, had his best chance with eight minutes remaining. Swivelling to meet a deflected cross, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid star cannoned a close-range shot against the Wehda crossbar. He really should have scored. Ronaldo seemed to understand the opportunity missed; he promptly held his head in his hands.
Nassr thought they had scored deep into the seven minutes of injury-time when Ronaldo beat Mohamedi to a free-kick and headed back across goal. However, Luis Gustavo’s header was then cleared off the Wehda goalline by Oscar Duarte.
Wehda, currently 13th in the Saudi Pro League, held on for a famous victory, with Ronaldo left to run another dispiriting night with Nassr.
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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.”
