Few players in the ISL boast the CV of Brazil’s 2010 World Cup captain Lucio. Though he is 35, he will be more than capable of organising FC Goa’s defence. Friedemann Vogel/Getty Images
Few players in the ISL boast the CV of Brazil’s 2010 World Cup captain Lucio. Though he is 35, he will be more than capable of organising FC Goa’s defence. Friedemann Vogel/Getty Images
Few players in the ISL boast the CV of Brazil’s 2010 World Cup captain Lucio. Though he is 35, he will be more than capable of organising FC Goa’s defence. Friedemann Vogel/Getty Images
Few players in the ISL boast the CV of Brazil’s 2010 World Cup captain Lucio. Though he is 35, he will be more than capable of organising FC Goa’s defence. Friedemann Vogel/Getty Images

Sport

ISL 2015 preview: Goa’s Lucio, Chennaiyin’s Elano Blumer and others to watch

Ahead of the start of the new Indian Super League football season, which begins Saturday with Chennaiyin taking on champions Atletico de Kolkata, Ali Khaled looks at six players to watch for in the months ahead.

Ali Khaled

October 02, 2015

  • English
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Ahead of the start of the new Indian Super League football season, which begins Saturday with Chennaiyin taking on champions Atletico de Kolkata, we take a look at six players to watch for in the months ahead:

Lucio (Goa)

World Cup winner, Uefa Champions League winner and title winner in Germany and Italy, few players in the ISL boast the CV of Brazil’s 2010 World Cup captain. Though he is 35, he will be more than capable of organising FC Goa’s defence, and another shot at the title looks well within reach for him and countryman coach Zico.

Elano Blumer (Chennaiyin)

One of the inaugural season’s stand-out players, the former Manchester City player, 34, helped Chennaiyin to the play-offs with a haul of eight goals and the Brazilian will once again be central to his club’s hopes of success.

Helder Postiga (Atletico de Kolkata)

Despite a chequered career, at 33, former Portugal international Postiga should have enough in the tank to succeed at this level. Many fans remember him for a brief, unsuccessful, spell at Tottenham Hotspur, but the man who scored 27 goals in 71 matches for his country will be a welcome addition to last season’s champions.

Florent Malouda (Delhi Dynamos)

A season each at Trabzonspor and Metz have shown diminishing returns from the Frenchman, 35, but the successor to Alessandro Del Piero will be hoping for one last hurrah in Delhi, where his experience (six seasons at Chelsea, four at Lyon) should compensate for his fading legs.

John Arne Riise (Delhi Dynamos)

The 2005 Champions League winner with Liverpool has a ferocious shot and with defences in the league allowing more space than what he has been used to in his later years in the English Premier League and in Italy’s Serie A, Riise, 35, could have one more big season.

Harmanjot Khabra (Chennaiyin)

The versatile 26-year-old Indian midfielder has re-signed for a second loan spell at Chennaiyin FC from I-League outfit East Bengal, after being one of the driving forces behind the club’s first-place finish in the 2014 regular season.

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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.

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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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