Gareth Bale celebrates after scoring the second goal for Real Madrid against Tottenham. Jason Cairnduff / Reuters
Gareth Bale celebrates after scoring the second goal for Real Madrid against Tottenham. Jason Cairnduff / Reuters
Gareth Bale celebrates after scoring the second goal for Real Madrid against Tottenham. Jason Cairnduff / Reuters
Gareth Bale celebrates after scoring the second goal for Real Madrid against Tottenham. Jason Cairnduff / Reuters

Sport

Gareth Bale scores against Tottenham as Real Madrid set up Audi Cup final with Bayern Munich

Gareth Bale scored against former club Tottenham Hotspur as Real Madrid won 2-0 on Tuesday to set up a final against Bayern Munich in the pre-season Audi Cup friendly tournament in Germany.

Agence France Presse

August 05, 2015

  • English
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Gareth Bale scored against former club Tottenham Hotspur as Real Madrid won 2-0 to set up a final against Bayern Munich in the pre-season Audi Cup friendly tournament in Germany.

The Wales international was playing against Spurs for the first time since his £85.3m (Dh487m) world record transfer to Madrid in September 2013.

Bale, 26, found the net on 79 minutes after James Rodriguez headed home the opener after 36 minutes at Munich’s Allianz Arena.

Last year’s tournament winners Bayern Munich later dominated AC Milan 3-0 to join the Spaniards in Wednesday’s final.

It will be the first meeting between the two teams since April 2014 when the Spaniards ran riot in a 4-0 Uefa Champions League semi-final second leg win en route to their record tenth European Cup triumph.

The win boosted Pep Guardiola’s Bayern side three days after their German Super Cup loss on penalties to Wolfsburg, the only title the Spaniard has failed to win since his arrival in Bavaria.

Juan Bernat opened the scoring after 24 minutes for the hosts with the help of a Cristian Zapata deflection, but it was new signing Douglas Costa who was the man of the match until his substitution at the break.

The Brazilian midfielder has had a good pre-season since his arrival from Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk last month and he was inspirational in combination with Mario Gotze and fellow new signing Arturo Vidal.

Chilean Vidal — who arrived from Italian champions Juventus last week — almost scored twice with two thumping headers — the first hitting the crossbar on 36 minutes with the second just missing the target seven minutes later.

Despite dominating, Bayern had to wait until the 74th minute to get a second with Gotze scoring as Robert Lewandowski completed the scoreline five minutes from time with a powerful shot that left Diego Lopez with no chance in the Milan goal.

Overrun by the Bundesliga champions, AC Milan will look to save face against Tottenham in the third-place play-off, also on Wednesday.

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Who's who in Yemen conflict

Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government

Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council

Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south

Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory

'Champions'

Director: Manuel Calvo
Stars: Yassir Al Saggaf and Fatima Al Banawi
Rating: 2/5
 

The other virus: bigotry

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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