A Nabil Fekir goal was enough for Lyon to beat Nantes 1-0 on Sunday and move back to the top of the Ligue 1 table, while Marseille had to settle for a 2-2 draw at Saint-Etienne.
Lyon broke the deadlock midway through the second half against Nantes at the Stade de Gerland when Yoann Gourcuff and Alexandre Lacazette combined to set up Fekir, and he was credited with the goal despite defender Kian Hansen appearing to get the final touch.
It was Lyon’s first attempt on target but the goal allowed them to make it 11 league games without defeat as they reopened a two-point gap to reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain, who briefly went top after beating Toulouse 3-1 on Saturday with Adrien Rabiot scoring twice.
“It is a relief after a difficult match against a well-organised Nantes team who left us very little space,” said Lyon coach Hubert Fournier, whose side now have consecutive away games to come at Lille, Montpellier and Marseille.
“This victory was important before we have three straight away matches against difficult teams. It would be wiser to wait until after these games to see if we can still trouble Paris and stay on the podium.”
Lyon had drawn their last three matches in the absence of 21-goal leading scorer Lacazette, but he returned after a hamstring injury to lead the line against a Nantes side still looking for their first league win of 2015.
In a game of few clear chances, Lyon almost broke the deadlock five minutes before the interval as Fekir crashed a free-kick against the junction of bar and post.
Apart from that, Nantes keeper Remy Riou was never really troubled until the goal, although he was called into action to deny substitute Clinton Njie before he conceded a penalty in stoppage time for bringing down Fekir in the box.
However, with the last kick of the game, Lyon captain Maxime Gonalons missed the opportunity to score his first Ligue 1 goal in over two years as he put the penalty wide.
That result piled the pressure on faltering Marseille, and Marcelo Bielsa’s side end the weekend in third place, four points off top spot, after they drew 2-2 at Saint-Etienne despite a double from substitute Michy Batshuayi.
They fell behind when Max Gradel converted a 54th-minute penalty at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard after Jeremy Morel brought down Romain Hamouma in the box.
However, a triple substitution just after the hour mark by Bielsa turned the game on its head.
Belgian striker Batshuayi replaced Andre-Pierre Gignac and equalised 55 seconds later with practically his first touch before finishing off a low cross from fellow substitute Romain Alessandrini to make it 2-1 on 67 minutes.
Yet Saint-Etienne hit back in injury time when another substitute, Mevlut Erding, headed in from practically on the line following a scramble in the Marseille penalty box.
Top of the table at Christmas, Marseille have taken just nine points from seven games in 2015 and have not won away from home in 10 attempts in all competitions since early October.
As a result, Marseille end the weekend outside the top two for the first time since early September.
“There is frustration because the win was within our grasp,” said Bielsa.
Elsewhere on Sunday, Montpellier boosted their chances of qualifying for Europe with a 2-0 win against Guingamp in Brittany.
Morgan Sanson and Kevin Berigaud got the goals for the visitors and condemned Guingamp to a first defeat in eight games in all competitions and a first loss at home since November.
Meanwhile, Metz remain bottom of the table on goal difference after seeing their run without a league win extended to 14 games as they drew 0-0 at Reims.
Amongst the other games this weekend, AS Monaco warmed up for their Uefa Champions League trip to Arsenal on Wednesday with a 1-0 win at Cote d’Azur rivals Nice that leaves them in fourth spot.
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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.”
Company profile
Date started: December 24, 2018
Founders: Omer Gurel, chief executive and co-founder and Edebali Sener, co-founder and chief technology officer
Based: Dubai Media City
Number of employees: 42 (34 in Dubai and a tech team of eight in Ankara, Turkey)
Sector: ConsumerTech and FinTech
Cashflow: Almost $1 million a year
Funding: Series A funding of $2.5m with Series B plans for May 2020
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Company%20profile
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