Santonio Holmes, of the Jets, celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Patriots.
Santonio Holmes, of the Jets, celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Patriots.
Santonio Holmes, of the Jets, celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Patriots.
Santonio Holmes, of the Jets, celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Patriots.

Sport

Jets and Packers edge closer to Super Bowl

Two wild card teams in the Super Bowl? The New York Jets and Green Bay Packers like that scenario, and it is impossible to ignore them.

Agencies

January 18, 2011

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Two wild card teams in the Super Bowl? The New York Jets and Green Bay Packers like that scenario, and it is impossible to ignore them after this weekend's NFL play-off games.

The Jets went to New England and handed the league's top regular-season team a 28-21 defeat on Sunday. Their reward is a date with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship game next Sunday night.

"We're not afraid of anybody," Rex Ryan, the Jets coach, said after Mark Sanchez threw for three touchdowns against New England. "Maybe people take it the wrong way. We don't badmouth an opponent, but we don't fear anybody."

Nor, apparently, do the Packers. They routed the NFC's top seed, the Atlanta Falcons, 48-21 on Saturday night, and will head to Chicago for the NFC title game. The Bears whipped Seattle 35-24 to set up the 182nd meeting in the NFL's longest series, but the first for an NFC championship.

"We're both familiar with each other, so nothing's going to be new," said Jay Cutler, the Bears quarterback who threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more in his first post-season appearance. "We have our hands full."

The AFC title game will be a rematch of a December 19 game, won 22-17 by the Jets. Troy Polamalu, the Steelers safety, missed that game and he is a huge playmaker.

The Jets have won four of their five play-off road games under Ryan, the latest their stunner on Sunday at Foxborough, where the Jets fell 45-3 on December 6.

"We knew we'd have to beat those kind of opponents, got to get a team that can beat New England, beat Indianapolis at their places, and beat Pittsburgh, hopefully," Ryan said.

In the NFC, Chicago and Green Bay have been going at it for 90 years, but, amazingly, this will be only the second time they have faced each other in a play-off.

In 1941, just days after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and a quarter-century before there was a Super Bowl, the George Halas-coached Bears beat the Packers 33-14 for the Western Division title. The play-off was needed after both went 10-1 during the regular season.

The Bears went on to beat the New York Giants for one of their nine NFL titles. But they have not won it since 1985.

The Packers have won a record 12 NFL titles, most recently after the 1996 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.

“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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Age: 37

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