BERLIN // Borussia Dortmund’s Bundesliga crisis deepened on Saturday after suffering their tenth defeat of the season in losing 2-1 at fellow strugglers Werder Bremen to drop to second from bottom.
Having started December at the foot of the table, Dortmund can finish 2014 back at the bottom if Freiburg score and pick up a point against Hanover 96 on Sunday.
Dortmund continue to have the most defeats in Germany’s top flight at the season’s halfway stage with just 15 points from 17 games as Bremen claimed only their fourth win of the season to climb off the foot of the table.
Borussia coach Jurgen Klopp insists they are not relegation candidates, despite their league position.
“I wouldn’t write us off yet,” Klopp insisted with the Bundesliga to resume at the end of January following the winter break.
“We have three weeks to prepare ourselves for the second half of the season.
“We must, and we will, improve, we have shown a lot of weaknesses in the first half of the season, but we’re not as weak as that. We need to charge our batteries and fight back in the new year.”
Borussia, who face Juventus in the last 16 of the Uefa Champions League, fell behind with just three minutes gone when Bremen’s 19-year-old striker Davie Selke curled in a superb goal from 15 metres out.
Selkie then turned provider by outsprinting Dortmund captain Mats Hummels to put in a great cross which Bremen midfielder Fin Bartels converted on 62 minutes.
Hummels pulled a goal back when he headed home unmarked a corner from fellow Germany international Ilkay Gundogan on 69 minutes, but it was no more than a consolation.
Second-placed Wolfsburg fought back to claim a 2-1 home win against mid-table Cologne later which trimmed Bayern Munich’s lead at the top of the table back to 11 points.
Defender Dominic Maroh gave Cologne a shock lead after just 11 minutes before Dutch striker Bas Dost equalised five minutes later.
Brazil defender Naldo, who scored Wolfsburg’s equaliser in their 2-2 draw at Dortmund on Wednesday, then headed the winner from a corner 12 minutes from time.
Bayer Leverkusen stay third after coming from behind for a 1-1 draw at home to Eintracht Frankfurt.
Eintracht captain Alexander Meier converted a penalty to make him the league’s top scorer with 13 goals in 16 games before Leverkusen’s Germany winger Karim Bellarabi equalised seven minutes from time.
Roberto di Matteo’s Schalke 04, who have drawn Real Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League, stay fifth in the table after being held to a goalless draw at home to Hamburg in a poor display.
There was some good news for Royal Blues fans before kick-off as Netherlands striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar extended his contract until 2017 having scored 66 goals in 116 Bundesliga matches.
Stuttgart remain above the bottom three places after their goalless draw at home to Paderborn.
Augsburg fought back for a 2-1 win at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach, who took the lead after only two minutes when Max Kruse converted a penalty before midfielder Markus Feulner and striker Raul Bobadilla scored either side of half-time.
The result leaves Augsburg sixth while Gladbach drop to fourth.
On Friday, Pep Guardiola’s Bayern broke more league records as Bastian Schweinsteiger and Arjen Robben scored in their 2-1 comeback win at Mainz after Colombia midfielder Elkin Soto had given the hosts’ a shock first-half lead.
The Mainz result saw Bayern claim a new record for the fewest goals conceded in the first-half of the season as their defence have leaked just four goals.
At the season’s halfway stage, Bayern’s 11-point lead is a new record, beating their own joint best mark of 10.
Bayern have also equalled their own record for the highest goal difference at the halfway point of plus 37, the same they managed in 2012/13, the season they last won the Champions League.
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MATCH INFO
Juventus 1 (Dybala 45')
Lazio 3 (Alberto 16', Lulic 73', Cataldi 90 4')
Red card: Rodrigo Bentancur (Juventus)
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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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
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