Harris leads Deccan's charge

Deccan Chargers are starting to run amok in the IPL table with all the subtlety of the bull mascot on their crest. Coming off a five-game losing streak, the defending champions shocked Royal Challengers Bangalore in their last game and yesterday they bulldozed Chennai Super Kings in a six-wicket victory in Nagpur to throw the race to the final four wide open.

It was a clinical performance with both ball and bat. First the Chargers restricted the visitors to 138 for eight and then cruised past the target in 19.1 overs, with Tirumalasetti Suman (55) and Andrew Symonds (27), the heroes of the win in Bangalore, keeping their act going. The win leaves both teams needing to win their last three matches to make the semi-finals and Adam Gilchrist, the Deccan captain, was confident his players can script a five-match winning streak to reach the last four.

"There is no other option," said Gilchrist at the post-match TV interview. "So we have to just go out there and win. "It's just an amazing competition. We win here and we are in a similar position to so many others. We are still in seventh position, but we are one win away from second and very close to being the leaders. So it's a tight competition and it's making great viewing. "We were playing pretty much in a situation where we can't lose a game [after five consecutive defeats]. The guys have gone out there and done the job."

After restricting Matthew Hayden and Murali Vijay to just 41 from the first five overs, the Chargers, who have the worst bowling record in the final quarter of the innings, allowed Chennai only 28 runs in the last five overs and took four wickets to seal the victory. "We bowled pretty well," said Ryan Harris in the post-match TV interview. Harris led the attack with three for 18 and picked up a rare man-of-the-match award for a bowler. "We've bowled pretty well up to about the six to eight overs, but in the last four overs we have let ourselves down," he said. "We have talked about it over the last couple of days and we got it right this time. Our main objective was to contain in those last four overs and the plans worked."

Among the Chennai batsmen, only Suresh Raina (52) provided any resistance and the last seven batsmen had single-digit scores. The highest partnership was the opening one of 41 runs and Gilchrist broke that with a sharp catch, standing up to Harmeet Singh, to get rid of Hayden, his former one-day international opening partner for Australia, and it was all downhill from there. Suman made sure Deccan did not suffer a similar fate with another steady innings after the dismissal of Gilchrist and Monish Mishra in the fifth over.

"It has been a pleasure batting well, especially from the last game. "I have been enjoying going top of the order and getting some runs," Suman said in the post-match TV interview. * Compiled by Ahmed Rizvi

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.”

Company Profile

Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
Founders: Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 30
Investment stage: Seed

Harris leads Deccan's charge

Seamer's three scalps pin the Chennai Super Kings down before Suman scores and the Chargers are starting to run amok.

Company Profile