MATCH INFO
Barcelona 4 (Suarez 27', Vidal 32', Dembele 35', Messi 78')
Sevilla 0
Red cards: Ronald Araujo, Ousmane Dembele (Barcelona)
Ernesto Valverde described Barcelona's victory over Sevilla at Camp Nou as "crucial" and will act as a launchpad to sustain their title defence.
A sublime Luis Suarez overhead kick opened the scoring before Arturo Vidal and Ousmane Dembele gave Barca a 3-0 lead before the break.
Lionel Messi scored with a trademark free kick on 78 minutes but the match ended in chaos with Ronald Araujo, making his debut, and Dembele both shown red cards for the home side.
The win saw Barca move up to second in the table two points behind leaders Real Madrid, who visit Camp Nou for the first Clasico of the season in three weeks' time following the international break. Atletico Madrid are third on 15 points after drawing 0-0 at Real Valladolid.
"It was crucial for us," Valverde said of the victory. "It has been a strange start to the season and we have not added all the points we would have wanted."
Barca rode their luck in the opening exchanges as Sevilla looked menacing and inventive going forward but lacked the killer touch.
Julen Lopetegui's side were made to pay for their profligacy as Barca effectively sealed the match in an eight-minute scoring spree.
Suarez gave the champions the lead with an outstanding bicycle kick in the 27th minute and Chile midfielder Vidal connected with an Arthur Melo shot-cum-cross to steer past Tomas Vaclik on 32 minutes.
Frenchman Dembele, who started ahead of €120 million (Dh484m) signing Antoine Griezmann, made it 3-0 in the 35th with a superb solo dribble and finish.
Captain Messi, whose early season has been hampered by a calf injury, curled over a superb free kick on 78 minutes, the Argentine's first of the campaign.
Uruguayan defender Araujo, on for the injured Jean-Clair Todibo but was sent off 14 minutes later for a last-ditch challenge on Javier Hernandez, while Dembele was dismissed for protesting the decision.
Referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz explained in his report that he showed Dembele a straight red card for saying "very bad, you are very bad" and waving his arms at him.
"Dembele's [red card] is a mystery," said Valverde. "It is very difficult to get words out of him in Spanish, so what he said couldn't have been very long."
The forward will automatically miss Barca's next La Liga fixture at Eibar and could see his ban extended to two games, ruling him out of el clasico, if La Liga follow recent precedent of others who have lashed out against referees.
be suspended from Barca's next La Liga game at Eibar and is in danger of missing the 'Clasico' against Real, as players who have said similar words to referees in recent seasons have been handed two-game bans.
Barca's scorer Vidal said they deserved the big victory.
"We were superior to them the whole time, we were always putting them under pressure and we are worthy winners," he told reporters.
"We were up against a team who are good with the ball and on the wings but we dominated them in those areas."
Lopetegui's last visit to the Camp Nou was a painful affair as his then Real Madrid side were hammered 5-1 by Barca in his final game in charge before being sacked, and this was a similarly galling experience for the former Spain coach.
"It's a crushing and undeserved defeat," he said Lopetegui. "We played very well, we were brave and we tried to do what we had worked on in training but we couldn't take our chances."
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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.”
MATCH INFO
Barcelona 4 (Suarez 27', Vidal 32', Dembele 35', Messi 78')
Sevilla 0
Red cards: Ronald Araujo, Ousmane Dembele (Barcelona)
