No let up yet from Borussia Dortmund in their neck-and-neck Bayern Munich chase

Borussia Dortmund reclaimed top spot in the Bundesliga from Bayern Munich on Sunday with a 3-1 victory over Hertha Berlin – their eighth straight win under new coach Thomas Tuchel.

As the only teams in Germany’s top flight to have won their opening three matches, Dortmund are matching Bayern’s impressive early form as the Bavarian club bid to become the first side to win fourth straight German titles.

Dortmund are top on goal difference from Bayern, who romped to a 3-0 home win over Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.

Borussia saw off Hertha at their Westfalenstadion with goals from captain Mats Hummels, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Adrian Ramos.

“The hardest thing today was to keep the pace up,” said Hummels, who said his side were feeling the effects of Thursday’s 7-2 win at home to Odds BK to qualify for the Europa League’s group stages.

“It wasn’t a good performance from us, but we still won.

“We could have decided it earlier and it was annoying to concede the late goal, because we were a little flat.”

Pitchside temperatures of 32C (89F) meant frequent water breaks as Dortmund continued their red-hot form when Hummels powered home a Shinji Kagawa cross on 27 minutes.

Aubamenyang claimed his seventh goal in eight games after right-back Matthias Ginter combined with Kagawa to set up a simple tap-in on 51 minutes.

Ex-Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou pulled a goal back for Hertha on 78 minutes before Colombia striker Ramos came off the bench to score Dortmund’s third in injury time.

Champions League side Borussia Monchengladbach are enduring their worst start to a Bundesliga season as three straight league defeats left them bottom after losing 2-1 at Werder Bremen.

Bremen’s American striker Aron Johannsson netted a first-half penalty before Gladbach’s Lars Stindl levelled just before the break, but towering Denmark defender Jannik Vestergaard headed the winner on 53 minutes.

Gladbach’s Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka was sent off for a second yellow card on 87 minutes, but Felix Kroos, brother of Real Madrid star Toni, fired the subsequent penalty wide.

Wolfsburg are third after beating Schalke 3-0 at home on Friday without attacking midfield star Kevin de Bruyne, who completed his transfer to Manchester City on Sunday.

On Saturday, Bayern downed Leverkusen as Thomas Muller scored twice, to leave him with five goals in his opening three league matches, before new Netherlands captain Arjen Robben netted a late penalty.

Cologne finish the weekend fourth after a 2-1 comeback win at home to Hamburg in controversial fashion.

Lewis Holtby gave Hamburg a second-half lead before Cologne levelled through Philipp Hosiner on 76 minutes.

But the game turned on a dubious red card and penalty.

Hamburg’s ex-Bosnia captain Emir Spahic was sent off on 79 minutes for the slightest of touches on Cologne striker Anthony Modeste, who drilled home the spot-kick to the fury of the visitors’ bench.

Japan striker Yoshinori Muto warmed up for his country’s World Cup qualifier against Cambodia in Saitama on Thursday with his first two Bundesliga goals in Mainz’s 3-0 win over Hannover before Yunus Malli claimed their third.

Socceroos forward Mathew Leckie also scored his first goal in Germany’s top flight in Ingolstadt’s 1-0 win at Bavarian rivals Augsburg with a superb shot inside the left-hand post on 63 minutes.

Ten-man Stuttgart are second from bottom after a 4-1 defeat at home to Eintracht Frankfurt as Poland goalkeeper Przemyslaw Tyton was sent off for the hosts.

Darmstadt are 12th after their third straight draw following a goalless effort at home to Hoffenheim.

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.”

No let up yet from Borussia Dortmund in their neck-and-neck Bayern Munich chase

Borussia Dortmund blitzed Hertha Berlin 3-1 on Sunday to maintain top spot on goal difference from Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, their eight straight win under Thomas Tuchel.