Zenit St Petersburg's new head coach Andre Villas-Boas, right, shakes hands with Zenit president Alexander Dukov during a news conference for his presentation in St Petersburg, Russia, on March 20, 2014. Anatoly Maltsev / EPA
Zenit St Petersburg's new head coach Andre Villas-Boas, right, shakes hands with Zenit president Alexander Dukov during a news conference for his presentation in St Petersburg, Russia, on March 20, 20Show more

Zenit St Petersburg put their ambition on show with hire of Villas-Boas



Agence France-Presse

Former Porto, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas on Thursday set high ambitions on his first day of work as manager of Zenit St Petersburg, saying he wanted to build up the team just as Peter the Great had constructed the Russian city.

Zenit have brought in Villas-Boas, 36, as manager in the hope he can take the side to European glory after dismissing his predecessor Luciano Spalletti for failing to win more big silverware.

The owners of the St Petersburg team, Russian state gas giant Gazprom, want his side to make an impact in the Uefa Champions League next season after they went out of this season's competition in a 5-4 aggregate defeat to Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, despite winning the second leg in Germany 2-1.

“I want to do the same for your team as Peter the Great did for St Petersburg,” Villas-Boas said, referring to the Russian tsar who founded the former imperial capital in 1703. “It is a fantastic city.”.

Villas-Boas said he had not hesitated to take the job, just three months after he left Tottenham, and said he would be learning Russian.

“I saw the big ambitions of the leadership in the shape of Gazprom,” Villas-Boas said. “I was happy to be invited as it is in line with my goals and my ambitions. I hope to achieve good results with Zenit.”

Villas-Boas said his aim for the rest of the season was to win the remaining nine matches in the Russian Premier League and take the Russian title.

Zenit are locked in a tight championship tussle with a resurgent Lokomotiv Moscow.

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Abu Dhabi GP Saturday schedule

12.30pm GP3 race (18 laps)

2pm Formula One final practice 

5pm Formula One qualifying

6.40pm Formula 2 race (31 laps)

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.”

In numbers

Number of Chinese tourists coming to UAE in 2017 was... 1.3m

Alibaba’s new ‘Tech Town’  in Dubai is worth... $600m

China’s investment in the MIddle East in 2016 was... $29.5bn

The world’s most valuable start-up in 2018, TikTok, is valued at... $75bn

Boost to the UAE economy of 5G connectivity will be... $269bn 

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When: November 21-24
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