Atletico Madrid sign Kevin Gameiro to end pursuit of Chelsea striker Diego Costa

Atletico Madrid will sign French forward Kevin Gameiro from fellow Primera Liga side Sevilla, seemingly ending their pursuit of Chelsea striker Diego Costa.

Gameiro, 29, will sign a four-year deal, and he will join up with compatriot Antoine Griezmann in attack. The former Paris Saint-Germain player will arrive in Madrid on Saturday afternoon to undergo a medical.

Gameiro joined Sevilla from PSG in 2013 and was part of the side that won three consecutive Europa League titles.

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Gameiro enjoyed the most prolific season of his career last term, scoring 29 goals in all competitions, including 10 in Europe, but missed out on selection for Didier Deschamps’s France Euro 2016 squad.

Atletico coach Diego Simeone had been looking to strengthen his forward line, as Griezmann and Fernando Torres have been sharing the bulk of the striking duties.

A move for former striker Costa had been touted for much of the off-season, despite Chelsea’s insistence he would not be leaving the Premier League club.

Simeone has also added former Benfica winger Nicolas Gaitan and Croatian defender Sime Vrsaljko to his squad this summer.

Atletico also announced Saturday that striker Luciano Vietto, who only joined the club last year, would leave and go to Sevilla “for the next season.”

Atletico will be hoping to push on in the coming season, after narrowly missing out on both the Champions League and La Liga titles last campaign.

They finished third behind Real Madrid and champions Barcelona in the league, and lost the Uefa Champions League final to city rivals Real on penalties.

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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.”