Cristiano Ronaldo to headline Dubai International Sports Conference


John McAuley
  • English
  • Arabic

Cristiano Ronaldo has been confirmed to headline this week’s Dubai International Sports Conference.

The Juventus forward, 34, will appear as guest speaker at the event on Saturday, which takes place at Madinat Jumeirah under the theme “Football Future Accelerators”.

Ronaldo will be joined at the conference by club teammate Miralem Pjanic, fellow Portugal national team forward Joao Felix, and Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku. France’s 2018 World Cup-winning manager Didier Deschamps and Wales counterpart Ryan Giggs were also among the names confirmed last week.

Ronaldo, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner, will be present at the Dubai Globe Soccer Awards the following day, where he has been nominated for Best Men’s Player.

A five-time winner of that title – he collected his most recent earlier this year – the Portugal captain is up against Barcelona rival Lionel Messi, Liverpool quartet Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson, and Manchester City winger Bernardo Silva.

Meanwhile, Edwin van der Sar, Fabio Capello, Mikael Silvestre and City chief executive Ferran Soriano have already been secured to speak at the conference, which is now in its 14th year.

However, it will for the first time include an all-female session, featuring 2019 Uefa women’s player of the year Lucy Bronze, France captain Amandine Henry, Italy captain Sara Gama and history-making referee Stephanie Frappart. Moderated by Singapore-based sports journalist Ash Hashim, the discussion is entitled “Empowering Women in Football”.

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg
Real Madrid (2) v Bayern Munich (1)

Where: Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
When: 10.45pm, Tuesday
Watch Live: beIN Sports HD

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champioons League semi-final:

First leg: Liverpool 5 Roma 2

Second leg: Wednesday, May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome

TV: BeIN Sports, 10.45pm (UAE)

How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers

Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.

It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.

The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.

Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.

Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.

He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.

AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”

A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.

Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.

Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.

Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.

By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.

Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.

In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”

Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.

She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.

Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.

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Profile of Bitex UAE

Date of launch: November 2018

Founder: Monark Modi

Based: Business Bay, Dubai

Sector: Financial services

Size: Eight employees

Investors: Self-funded to date with $1m of personal savings