Manchester City's quest for four trophies continued with a 5-0 thrashing of Burnley to march into the FA Cup fifth round as League One Shrewsbury Town narrowly missed out on shocking Wolves in a 2-2 draw on Saturday.
City manager Pep Guardiola labelled talk of a quadruple as "fantasy" earlier in the week, but after cruising into the League Cup final in midweek, the English champions are in contention for a clean sweep of trophies as they challenge Liverpool in the Premier League and face Schalke in the last 16 of the Uefa Champions League.
The defeat left Burnley to concentrate on their bid for survival in the top flight.
Gabriel Jesus continued his hot streak with a fine individual run and powerful finish past Nick Pope to open the scoring with his eighth goal in five games.
Burnley wasted a great chance to level when Matej Vydra fired wide with just Ederson to beat and within seconds Bernardo Silva's deflected effort gave City breathing space.
Kevin de Bruyne's brilliant free kick then made it 3-0 and another wicked delivery from the Belgian forced Kevin Long to turn into his own net for the fourth before Sergio Aguero rounded off the scoring from the penalty spot.
"I'm delighted to have won the game, we have a lot of games in our life, and everyone was so professional and so focused," Guardiola said.
"It is important for everybody we know the tradition and here the FA Cup is so important. We want to go through and we want to play the later stages."
Wolves knocked out Premier League leaders Liverpool in the last round, but needed a late fightback from 2-0 down to avoid the shock of the day at New Meadow.
Rangers loanee Greg Docherty smashed the third-tier side into the lead just two minutes into the second half.
Luke Waterfall gave the Shrews a two-goal lead 19 minutes from time with a towering header from a corner.
They needed that cushion as Raul Jimenez came off the bench to give the visitors a lifeline and Matt Doherty levelled three minutes into stoppage time to save Wolves' blushes.
Shrewsbury manager Sam Ricketts told BBC Sport: "We played football today. We have to make the game hard and frustrate them but our first goal was real quality. Everything we work on.
"We were comfortable at 2-0 up, yes we are going to concede chances but we were comfortable. They are an excellent side, let's not hide behind anything.
"Our players can take a lot from that. Neither side will have wanted a replay but we will have another game. Don't write us off yet, we went to Stoke and won in a replay."
One League One side will be in the next round after a late Ben Whiteman penalty earned Doncaster Rovers a 2-1 win over Oldham Athletic.
Watford edged an all-Premier League tie despite Javi Gracia making 11 changes as Andre Grey and Isaac Success scored in a 2-0 win at Newcastle United.
On making 11 changes, Gracia said: "I believe in all the squad and it's not only words, you have to show it. And today the players showed it, they are working very hard in training and it means in games like today they are able to play at the level they have."
Newport County's fairy tale continues as the League Two side, who beat Leicester City in Round 3, equalised in stoppage time to earn a 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough.
Frank Lampard's Derby County moved into the last 16 with a hard-fought 1-0 win at League One Accrington Stanley thanks to Martyn Waghorn's winner 12 minutes from time as both sides ended with 10 men.
Swansea City also booked their place in Monday's draw by easing past Gillingham 4-1.
Two other ties will need a replay to find a winner as Brighton & Hove Albion and West Bromwich Albion played out a 0-0 draw, while QPR's visit to Portsmouth ended in a 1-1 draw.
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
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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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
