Referee Howard Webb tries to intervene between Robin Van Persie and Yohan Cabaye. Pic: Graham Stuart/AFP
Referee Howard Webb tries to intervene between Robin Van Persie and Yohan Cabaye. Pic: Graham Stuart/AFP
Referee Howard Webb tries to intervene between Robin Van Persie and Yohan Cabaye. Pic: Graham Stuart/AFP
Referee Howard Webb tries to intervene between Robin Van Persie and Yohan Cabaye. Pic: Graham Stuart/AFP

Sport

Premier League: Ups and Downs - Week 7

Iain Hepburn

October 09, 2012

  • English
  • Arabic

We look at the performers making the news for the right - and wrong - reasons over the last weekend of English Premier League action.

Going Up

Aaron Lennon, Tottenham

Four straight league wins for the North London side and the English winger has been an integral part of that success. His strike, to seal the 2-0 win against Aston Villa, was his first in nine months and just reward for his penetrating runs and crosses from wide.

Wigan forwards Franco di Santo and Arouna Kone have each scored three goals so far, making them the most prolific pairing in the division. If Wigan Athletic are to secure their top-flight status for a seventh consecutive season, they will need the duo to keep up their healthy strike rate.

Jose Fonte, Southampton The Portuguese defender scored in the fourth minute and then netted a late equaliser in the 2-2 draw with Fulham. The point saw the South Coast side climb out of the bottom three for the first time this season.

Going Down

Jos Hooiveld, Southampton

This Saints defender did not have such a good game as his Portuguese counterpart. Hooiveld, who came on in the eighth minute after an injury to Frazer Richardson, scored an own goal, and just before full time Kieran Richardson’s shot deflected into the net off his boot.

Violent conduct Manchester United's Robin van Persie, below, and Newcastle's Cheick Tiote escaped retrospective action for alleged violence. While Tony Pulis's call for Luis Suarez to be banned for diving seemed rich after Stoke's Robert Huth seemed to stamp on the Liverpool man's chest.

Ashley Cole, Chelsea The left-back was hit with an FA misconduct charge on after his foul-mouthed Twitter rant at the English game's governing body, after it questioned the evidence he gave in John Terry's racial abuse hearing.

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.”

What is blockchain?

Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.

The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.

Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.

However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.

Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.

While you're here
LAST-16 EUROPA LEAGUE FIXTURES

Wednesday (Kick-offs UAE)

FC Copenhagen (0) v Istanbul Basaksehir (1) 8.55pm

Shakhtar Donetsk (2) v Wolfsburg (1) 8.55pm

Inter Milan v Getafe (one leg only) 11pm

Manchester United (5) v LASK (0) 11pm 

Thursday

Bayer Leverkusen (3) v Rangers (1) 8.55pm

Sevilla v Roma  (one leg only)  8.55pm

FC Basel (3) v Eintracht Frankfurt (0) 11pm 

Wolves (1) Olympiakos (1) 11pm 

Our legal consultant

Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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