Sport

Maiden Tour success kicks up sand on the world stage

The president of the UAE Volleyball Association, is hoping to build on the success of the Swatch FIVB World Tour.

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DUBAI // Mohammed Abdul Karim al Julfar, the president of the UAE Volleyball Association, is hoping to build on the success of the first-ever Swatch FIVB World Tour stop in the country and make the sport a hit. The US$350,000 (Dh1.3million) Dubai Open, which concluded at the Jumeirah Beach Park on Saturday, was the second major volleyball event in the UAE this year after mid-June's 31st FIVB World Congress, where 180 nations with more than 400 delegates attended.

"Beach volleyball has the potential to become very big in the country," said Julfar. "It is a very simple sport. All you need is two fit players. I am confident that if we start organising events, it will be very successful. "Beach volleyball is popular among some youth here, but officially, as the UAE Volleyball Association, we have not propagated this sport strongly. "The year before, we had a very small tournament, but it was not very successful for the lack of support and co-ordination between the clubs. This year, we sent four teams to Switzerland and France to take part in the FIVB events.

"We had five teams playing here this week. From here, they will go to Indonesia, where they will take part in the Sea Games in Bali. After that, they will go to Bahrain. "After they come back, we will try to organise a domestic tournament, where the locals and expats can take part. "We have lots of expatriates living here, who are interested in beach volleyball. We will have tournaments in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Khor Fakkan, where they have good beaches."

The FIVB Beach Volleyball Events Director Angelo Squeo was in Dubai to attend the final matches and he was impressed with the efforts of the UAE Volleyball Association. "I am thrilled to have the UAE hosting a double gender event this year," he said. "For a first-time event, the UAE Volleyball Association have worked well with the promoter to develop a first-class event. "With the UAE Volleyball Association, we have discussed a lot of things to develop beach volleyball in the region. One of the projects involves the setting up of a permanent beach volleyball centre in Dubai for foreign teams wanting to train during the winter."

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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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