Juma Al Dhaheri, the captain of the UAE ice hockey team, won the Most Valuable Player award at the recently concluded IIHF Challenge Cup of Asia after scoring four goals in as many games.
UAE finished runner-up behind six-time champions Chinese Taipei in the continental championship that also included Mongolia, Thailand and Singapore, at the Abu Dhabi Ice Rink. The UAE lost their final match of the round-robin league 6-1 to Chinese Taipei on Friday.
Al Dhaheri, 39, regarded as the best Emirati forward, has the distinction of playing in all the Challenge Cup of Asia competitions since its inception in 2008.
The UAE have the second best record in the competition behind Chinese Taipei having won the title twice, in 2009 and 2012, and finished runner-up five times.
See also:
[ In pictures: IIHF Challenge Cup of Asia Final - UAE 1 Chinese Taipei 6 ]
[ Eye on UAE: The local sporting scene for the third week of March, 2016 ]
You were runner-up behind Chinese Taipei for a third successive year, are you disappointed at the result?
We must be realistic. We lost to the best team in Asia for a long time. Their record in this competition is the best, so we can’t say we were disappointed. Of course, at that moment we feel disappointed because we couldn’t win in front of our home fans despite doing our best. The 6-1 score doesn’t tell the actual story, but we gave them a good run and we are not too far behind them.
Your own form remains high. How do you maintain it?
It’s just keeping myself in good shape by training regularly. When you have the passion and discipline, I guess, you can keep your level high.
As a full time official (general secretary) of the Abu Dhabi Ice Hockey Club, how do you see the sport developing among the Emiratis?
We work very closely with the IIHF [International Ice Hockey Federation] and implement all their recommendations. It has been quite successful with the women, youth and junior programmes, apart from our own men’s development schedules.
The Emirates Hockey League, founded in 2009, is getting stronger and is drawing more players from ice hockey countries like Canada, USA and Europe. Some of them have played in the top flight and still play at a good level. The teams have also increased from five to seven. I think we are going in the right direction in terms of progress.
What would be your dream for ice hockey here?
To see the Emirates Hockey League turn fully professional. We have come a long way from a humble beginning, and the league keeps raising the bar every passing year. The league is only seven years and we already have some full-time players from some of the established hockey playing nations. So it’s shaping up well. It will take a long time but I’m quite sure the time will come when the league will turn fully professional.
[ apassela@thenational.ae ]
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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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Stuart Ritchie, director of wealth advice at AES International, says children cannot learn something overnight, so it helps to have a fun routine that keeps them engaged and interested.
“I explain to my daughter that the money I draw from an ATM or the money on my bank card doesn’t just magically appear – it’s money I have earned from my job. I show her how this works by giving her little chores around the house so she can earn pocket money,” says Mr Ritchie.
His daughter is allowed to spend half of her pocket money, while the other half goes into a bank account. When this money hits a certain milestone, Mr Ritchie rewards his daughter with a small lump sum.
He also recommends books that teach the importance of money management for children, such as The Squirrel Manifesto by Ric Edelman and Jean Edelman.
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Lowest Test scores
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38 - Ireland v England at Lord's, July 2019
42 - New Zealand v Australia in Wellington, March 1946
42 - Australia v England in Sydney, Feb. 1888
