Rayhan Thomas carried his impressive form into the Golf Citizen Classic to claim joint leadership after the opening round at the Els Club Dubai on Monday.
Thomas, 16, won his first Mena Tour event at the Dubai Creek Open at the start of September before finishing tied-ninth at last week's Sheikh Maktoum Open.
The teenager was again in fine form at the Els Club, carding a blemish free five-under par 67 to lead alongside England’s Craig Hinton and Pakistani Shahid Javed.
Thomas and Javed both produced bogey-free rounds, while Hinton bounced back from a bogey on the second to shoot three successive birdies on his way to the top of a tight leaderboard.
The trio hold a one shot lead over five players; Moroccan Ahmed Marjan, Spain’s Carlos Balmaseda, Luke Joy of England, Swede Per Berth, and Scotland’s Daniel Hendry all shooting four-under par 68s.
Meanwhile, defending champion Clarke Lutton is one of three players — along with Brunei’s Wira Salleh and Swiss Alex Messiqua — one shot further back at three-under par.
“I played very solid golf throughout again. I hope I can keep the momentum going. So far so good,” said Thomas, who has finished second, third, first and ninth in his last four events on the Mena Tour.
Hinton, who currently sits 10th in the Mena Tour Order of Merit, is looking for his second title of the season following his triumph at the Johannesburg City Masters in June.
“The course is playing long, but it offers plenty of scoring opportunities as greens are rolling nicely,” Hinton, 28, said. “I’m very happy with the way I played.”
Javed, competing in his first Mena Tour event of the season, said: “The key to going low on this course, which is playing long and tough, depends on how well you drive and how well you read the greens. It feels nice to walk off the course with a good score under your belt.”
Elsewhere, Order of Merit leader Andrew Marshall finished the opening round on one-under par, while Zane Scotland — the Mena Tour’s most successful player with 11 wins — scored level par.
For the complete leaderboard, visit menagolftour.com
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Leap of Faith
Michael J Mazarr
Public Affairs
Dh67
Sugary teas and iced coffees
The tax authority is yet to release a list of the taxed products, but it appears likely that sugary iced teas and cold coffees will be hit.
For instance, the non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.
Cold coffee brands are likely to be hit too. Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.
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Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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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.”
