ABU DHABI // Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position for the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to boost his hopes of winning a fourth world title.
The Mercedes-GP driver set a fastest time of 1 minute, 38.755 seconds to claim a 61st pole of his career in Saturday’s qualifying session at Yas Marina Circuit.
Hamilton trails teammate Nico Rosberg by 12 points, and needs to win the race, with the German not finishing on the podium, to claim the title.
Rosberg was second fastest, 0.303 seconds adrift of Hamilton to achieve the feat of qualifying on the front row for every race of the season.
Daniel Ricciardo was best of the rest for Red Bull Racing in third, ahead of the Ferrari pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, with the second Red Bull of Max Verstappen completing the top six.
The Red Bull team will be on an alternative strategy to Mercedes and Ferrari in the race.
They will start on the supersoft Pirelli tyre, after using them in the second part of qualifying, and they should be able to run a longer first stint in the 55-lap race, compared to their rivals who will be on the fast degrading ultrasoft compound.
Felipe Massa will start his final race in F1 on Sunday, but he showed he still had plenty of speed in qualifying 10th, out-pacing his teammate Valtteri Bottas, who was 11th, for only the fourth time this season.
Jenson Button was 12th in his final qualifying session for McLaren, but was upbeat about starting in the midfield, given he can pick which tyre to start the race with.
It was a poor day for Toro Rosso, who endured their worst qualifying session of 2016, with both cars eliminated in the first session.
Daniil Kvyat was 17th and Carlos Sainz Jr 21st as the pair suffered from a lack of track of time after missing most of Friday practice as the team investigated why Kvyat had suffered two left-rear punctures.
Sunday’s 55-lap race begins at 5pm.
STARTING GRID FOR ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX
1st row
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
Nico Rosberg (Mercedes-GP)
2nd row
Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing)
Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
3rd row
Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing)
4th row
Nico Hülkenberg (Force India)
Sergio Perez (Force India)
5th row
Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
Felipe Massa (Williams)
6th row
Valtteri Bottas (Williams)
Jenson Button (McLaren)
7th row
Esteban Gutierrez (Haas)
Romain Grosjean (Haas)
8th row
Jolyon Palmer (Renault)
Pascal Wehrlein (Manor)
9th row
Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso)
Kevin Magnussen (Renault)
10th row
Felipe Nasr (Sauber)
Estéban Ocon (Manor)
11th row
Carlos Sainz Jr (Toro Rosso)
Marcus Ericsson (Sauber)
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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.”
