Quite A Show looks to have good chance

Doug Watson continues his bid to regain the trainers' championship today with a four-strong hand at Sharjah Racecourse.

He went into the weekend with two wins gained at Jebel Ali Racecourse's opening meet and his chances today are likely to come from Gulf Of Gold, a thoroughbred, and Quite A Show, a purebred Arabian,

Quite A Show, who goes in the third race, a Dh60,000 conditions contest, looks to have a real chance. He was the winner of three conditions races over a mile and shorter at Delaware Park, in the US, in 2009.

Those wins came on dirt. Quite A Show's two UAE starts last season were on the Abu Dhabi turf, coming home third in a mile-long listed race and fourth in the UAE Arabian Derby.

They are respectable results in good company. But as Quite A Show's best form came on dirt, he must be considered a real danger on the same surface at Sharjah Racecourse.

Watson sounded a note of caution: "He does have great form but I am just a little worried about the trip. I wasn't sure if the turf or the trip was the problem last season."

Tadgh O'Shea, the second jockey of Quite A Show's owner, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid, takes the ride.

His main competition in the race comes from Knife, a horse trained by Anthony Manuel and ridden by Jesus Rosales.

Knife is backing up after a victory a week ago at Sharjah over a shorter distance of eight-and-a-half furlongs. Knife held on gamely to claim victory by a quarter-of-a-length from Musabah al Muhairi's Bareq, who also appears in today's field.

Gulf Of Gold promises to live up to his name in the first thoroughbred race on the card, a handicap worth Dh65,000. The Watson-trained charge, also ridden by O'Shea, won at Jebel Ali two weeks ago and his handler is in a confident mood.

"He won over the trip at this course last season and he's very well in himself." Watson said. "There are a couple of horses that look good in the field but we are expecting a big race from him."

Dhruba Selvaratnam's Daweyrr, who beat Gulf Of Gold in 2009 at Sharjah, is likely to be chief among his rivals.

sports@thenational.ae

LIVERPOOL SQUAD

Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk, Georginio Wijnaldum, James Milner, Naby Keita, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Joe Gomez, Adrian, Jordan Henderson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Adam Lallana, Andy Lonergan, Xherdan Shaqiri, Andy Robertson, Divock Origi, Curtis Jones, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Neco Williams

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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.”