More pressure on Al Ain than Al Ahli in Asian Champions League, says Luis Jimenez

DUBAI // Luis Jimenez, the Al Ahli midfielder, says the pressure is on Al Ain ahead of the Asian Champions League double-header with their fierce rivals.

The UAE clubs, familiar foes domestically, have been pitted against one another in the last 16 of the continental competition, with the first leg taking place on Wednesday night at Ahli’s Rashid Stadium. The two teams then square off again in next week’s return match at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium.

Al Ain, seeking to improve on last year’s run to the semi-finals, would appear to be in better form heading into the tie, with the Garden City club having recently secured a 12th UAE championship. On Thursday, they began their President’s Cup defence with an emphatic 5-0 victory against Dibba Al Fujairah.

In contrast, Ahli are seeking to move on from a disappointing Arabian Gulf League campaign. The 2013/14 champions stuttered through their title defence, eventually finishing seventh. However, they have progressed to the knockout stages of the ACL for the first time in the club's history, and join Al Ain in the quarter-finals of the President's Cup following last week's victory against Kalba.

There, Ahli will play Dubai Club, a fixture that falls between the two Champions League legs. For now, though, Jimenez maintains the focus is solely on getting off to a strong start against Al Ain.

“It’s going to be difficult for both teams,” Jimenez said. “We know them, they know us, but I believe they have more pressure than us because they’re the league champions, and last season they arrived in the semi-finals, so they will want to go to the final this time. At this moment, they have more than us to lose.”

The two sides have met three times already this season, with each winning once. Ahli gleaned considerable confidence from their penultimate tussle – the Super Cup victory at the end of March – a result Jimenez says helped Cosmin Olaroiu’s men in their quest for Champions League qualification. Ahli clinched a place in the last 16 on the final day of pool play by finishing runners-up in Group D. Almost instantly, attention shifted to an all-UAE encounter.

“When we passed the group, all of the players spoke about the next round and said they wanted to play against Al Ain, so we look forward to it,” Jimenez said. “The matches are always hard, and we know Al Ain are a strong team with very good players, but we’re also a team with a lot of quality. We know how to play against them, and we always play well.

“We have played each other a lot in the past few years, but we have never met in the Champions League before, so it will be different to the league or the cups.

“Of course, we hope to beat Al Ain so we can go to the quarter-finals. But we don’t only want to get past Al Ain, we want to go farther. However, we must focus on the first step and that is winning against Al Ain.”

jmcauley@thenational.ae

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.”

More pressure on Al Ain than Al Ahli in Asian Champions League, says Luis Jimenez

Al Ahli midfielder Luis Jimenez tells John McAuley Al Ain 'have more than us to lose' when his Al Ahli side take on the UAE champions in the last 16 in Asia.

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