Barcelona and Bayern favourites to advance but in danger of shock European exits

Atletico Madrid and Benfica are both looking to turn around small first-leg deficits in their Uefa Champions League quarter-final home matches on Wednesday, and in the process blow the competition wide open.

Atletico go into the return leg against reigning champions Barcelona at the Vicente Calderon trailing 2-1, while Benfica welcome German champions Bayern Munich to Lisbon after an opening 1-0 defeat.

Fernando Torres’ red card and a Luis Suarez brace turned the all-Spanish tie on its head, although the Torres away goal keeps Atletico well in contention for a semi-final spot.

Diego Simeone’s side lost to city rivals Real Madrid in the final two years ago and are desperate to go one better, although they have lost their last seven meetings with Barca.

But the Catalan giants have shown signs of fallibility in recent weeks, with back-to-back league defeats seeing their Primera Liga lead cut to just three points over the capital city side.

“In a scenario like tomorrow all that has happened in the past is forgotten at the start of the game,” Simeone said.

“Then as the game develops certain situations may develop that are repeated (from previous games).”

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Suarez will return for Barca after being banned for the weekend loss at Real Sociedad, but former Liverpool striker Torres, who has scored in his last three games, is suspended.

“We need to overcome the absence of Fernando and control a marvellous footballer like Suarez,” Simeone said.

“Fernando will offer us a lot between now and the end of the season, he has improved a lot in this final part of the season,” added Atletico captain Gabi.

“But Atletico have always overcome the absences of big players.”

Benfica also have a key forward missing through suspension.

Jonas has scored 32 goals in all competitions this season, but the Brazilian’s yellow card in Munich means that the Portuguese champions will be looking to Greek Kostas Mitroglou and Raul Jimenez to provide the goals needed to turn the tie around.

Rui Vitoria’s side are also waiting on the fitness of key attacking midfielder Nicolas Gaitan, with the Argentine struggling with a thigh problem.

“We will make a decision tomorrow. We will need to wait until kick-off time to see if he is available,” Benfica coach Vitoria said.

“We managed to ensure that the tie will be decided at home but it will still be extremely difficult for us to go through.

“We will be coming up against a very strong team who are used to playing in matches like these and are contenders to win the trophy.”

Bayern, who last won the trophy in 2013, are still firm favourites to progress thanks to Arturo Vidal’s second-minute strike last week.

Outgoing coach Pep Guardiola, who will join Manchester City at the end of the season, is still on track to match the feat of Jupp Heynckes and win the treble of Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League in his final campaign at the Allianz Arena.

“We will go out there to defend well and try to score a goal to go through,” Guardiola said.

“Tactically we know what we need to do. Above all we will need to show great character in front of more than 60,000 spectators.”

While Bayern and Barca have both won Europe’s elite competition on five occasions, only Madrid and AC Milan have won more, they will have their work cut out to join Manchester City and Real Madrid in the last four.

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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.”

The Sand Castle

Director: Matty Brown

Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

Rating: 2.5/5