Rafael Benitez, right, alongside Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis following his announcement to leave the club. Cesare Abbate / EPA
Rafael Benitez, right, alongside Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis following his announcement to leave the club. Cesare Abbate / EPA

Real Madrid-bound Rafa Benitez can still end his long goodbye with Napoli on a high



The joke going around southern Italy about Rafa Benitez, the soon-to-depart coach of Napoli, is that he has excelled lately at premature farewells. On Thursday, he announced what had been widely foreseen: that he is leaving Napoli at the end of the Serie A season. That is, immediately after tomorrow night’s charged meeting with Lazio.

For some, that counts as the third farewell he has made this season. The first came in the Coppa Italia campaign, where he bid adieu in the semi-final stage; then came the Europa League campaign, where Napoli again went out in the last four. Those hurt, as did Napoli’s elimination in the play-offs round of the Champions League last August.

But there is a chance Benitez can make significant amends and leave a positive legacy before he moves on, probably to Real Madrid.

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Game 38 of Napoli’s up-and-down league campaign carries a potentially huge prize. Beat Lazio and the club will squeeze into third place in the table, equalling their standing of 12 months ago, and taking them again into an August play-off for a slot in the lucrative Champions League group phase.

Napoli need a victory to jump over a Lazio side who have lately stumbled after what had been an impressive spring. Their lead over fourth-place Napoli stands at three points, but a Napoli win would assure the Neapolitans finish ahead of their direct rivals because of the head-to-head tie-breaker: Benitez’s team beat Stefano Pioli’s side 1-0 in Rome.

Napoli probably need to be aggressive and proactive, qualities not always associated with Benitez the tactician. In his time in Spain, where he won two Liga titles with Valencia; and England, where he led Liverpool to a Champions League victory and Chelsea to a Europa League success, he was sometimes caricatured as cagey and conservative.

He bristled at that suggestion as he gave the press conference to confirm he would not be staying in Italy. “I believe I adapt well to the qualities of the team I have in front of me,” he said. “If you have attacking strength you attack. Here, they would say I am an offensive coach.”

He has a point. Only Juventus, the runaway champions, have scored more Serie A goals than Napoli this season. Where Lazio have trumped Napoli is in picking up points against opponents lower down in the table.

Benitez’s explanation: “It is hard to maintain consistency when you are competing in three distinct competitions.” His legacy? “Napoli can go on stronger from here,” he said, “and I think I can say my final goodbye with a place in the Champions League achieved.”

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The Sand Castle

Director: Matty Brown

Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

Rating: 2.5/5

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.”

Director: Laxman Utekar

Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna

Rating: 1/5

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners