Rashid Al Ketbi has high expectations of himself Rally of Portugal. Courtesy Skydive Dubai Rally Team
Rashid Al Ketbi has high expectations of himself Rally of Portugal. Courtesy Skydive Dubai Rally Team
Rashid Al Ketbi has high expectations of himself Rally of Portugal. Courtesy Skydive Dubai Rally Team
Rashid Al Ketbi has high expectations of himself Rally of Portugal. Courtesy Skydive Dubai Rally Team

Other Sport

Ford’s Rashid Al Ketbi to make amends at Rally of Portugal

‘Last year was disappointing for me’, says Dubai-based driver who takes part with Ford while Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi entered with Citroen Abu Dhabi.

Agency

April 02, 2014

  • English
  • Arabic

ALGARVE, Portugal // Skydive Dubai Rally Team driver Rashid Al Ketbi and German co-driver Karina Hepperle return to FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) action at this weekend’s Rally of Portugal.

The Dubai-based driver has been away from the WRC special stages since his premature departure with transmission problems from last year’s Rally of Spain.

But Al Ketbi was back behind the wheel of his Ford Fiesta R5 at last weekend’s Fafe Rally Sprint in northern Portugal, taking third place among the WRC 2 registered drivers in an event that was won by defending WRC champion Sebastien Ogier of France.

“I was quite happy with this performance bearing in mind it was my first time back in the WRC since Spain last year,” said the Emirati, who did take part in the Dubai International Rally last December.

“Now we can look forward to the first event in Portugal this week. Last year was a disappointing one for me in Portugal and it will not be easy this year with the strength of the entry, but Karina and I are well prepared and raring to go.”

The Portuguese event has attracted one of the strongest entries for some time and Al Ketbi faces fierce competition in the WRC 2 category. Championship leader Yuriy Protasov of Ukraine heads the field in his Ford Fiesta R5, but the likes of Finland’s Jari Ketomaa, Ireland’s Robert Barrable and Sweden’s Fredrik Ahlin will be hoping to achieve the win.

Qatar’s Nasser Al Attiyah and Abdulaziz Al Kuwari also return to the WRC for the first time this season in WRC 2, and Kuwaiti driver Salah bin Eidan teams up with new American navigator Alessandro Gelsomino.

The Fafe Rally Sprint was an ideal venue for Al Ketbi to shake down his Ford Fiesta before the start of his WRC programme. In its third year, the event ran over a six-kilometre section of the Fafe-Lameirinha special stage, near Porto in the north of Portugal, and attracted about 100,000 spectators.

Ogier heads to the Portuguese round of the WRC with an overall championship lead of just three points over Volkswagen Motorsport teammate Jari-Matti Latvala. Sharjah’s Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi is also entered with the Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team.

The Rally of Portugal begins on Thursday. After the traditional start at Estoril, near Lisbon, there will be an opening stage at Praco do Imperio close to the Jeronimos Monastery, a Unesco World Heritage Site, before the route ventures south towards the Algarve for three legs of gravel special stages in the Baixo Alentejo and Serra do Caldeirao hills north of Faro.

The Rally of Portugal was first held in 1967 and was one of the founding events in WRC in 1973.

After losing its place in the calendar when bad weather ruined the 2001 event, rally officials moved the race from the north to the south of the country and it regained its slot in the calendar in 2007.

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On Women's Day

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.”

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid

'Skin'

Dir: Guy Nattiv

Starring: Jamie Bell, Danielle McDonald, Bill Camp, Vera Farmiga

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Babumoshai Bandookbaaz

Director: Kushan Nandy

Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami

Three stars

The schedule

December 5 - 23: Shooting competition, Al Dhafra Shooting Club

December 9 - 24: Handicrafts competition, from 4pm until 10pm, Heritage Souq

December 11 - 20: Dates competition, from 4pm

December 12 - 20: Sour milk competition

December 13: Falcon beauty competition

December 14 and 20: Saluki races

December 15: Arabian horse races, from 4pm

December 16 - 19: Falconry competition

December 18: Camel milk competition, from 7.30 - 9.30 am

December 20 and 21: Sheep beauty competition, from 10am

December 22: The best herd of 30 camels

How to apply for a drone permit
  • Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
  • Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
  • Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
  • Submit their request
What are the regulations?
  • Fly it within visual line of sight
  • Never over populated areas
  • Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
  • Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
  • Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
  • Should have a live feed of the drone flight
  • Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Tomorrow 2021
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?

1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull

2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight

3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge

4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own

5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed

if you go

The flights

Emirates have direct flights from Dubai to Glasgow from Dh3,115. Alternatively, if you want to see a bit of Edinburgh first, then you can fly there direct with Etihad from Abu Dhabi.

The hotel

Located in the heart of Mackintosh's Glasgow, the Dakota Deluxe is perhaps the most refined hotel anywhere in the city. Doubles from Dh850

 Events and tours

There are various Mackintosh specific events throughout 2018 – for more details and to see a map of his surviving designs see glasgowmackintosh.com

For walking tours focussing on the Glasgow Style, see the website of the Glasgow School of Art. 

More information

For ideas on planning a trip to Scotland, visit www.visitscotland.com

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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