Sport

Richards peaking at right time

Sanya Richards takes her fifth straight American 400m title at the USA Track & Field National Championships in Oregon.

Sanya Richards showed she is ready to challenge Britain's Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu for 400m supremacy in Berlin later this year when she took her fifth American title at the USA Track & Field National Championships in Oregon late on Saturday. Richards, the top-ranked 400m runner in 2008, had to settle for third place in Beijing last August as Ohuruogu took Olympic gold. But she has the two fastest times of the year to date and she stamped her pedigree for this August's world championships in Germany with a third at Eugene's Hayward Field.

Negotiating a windy back straight, Richards powered to a 50.05sec win with Debbie Dunn (50.79) and Jessica Beard (50.81) making up the US contingent for Berlin as the nationals double as team trials. Olympic men's 400m champion LaShawn Merritt celebrated his birthday in style with a national title in 44.50, Gil Roberts second in 44.93 with 2007 world 400m hurdles champion Kerron Clement, also the Olympic silver medallist in that event, third on the flat in 45.14.

The Americans swept the Olympic medals in Beijing with world champion Jeremy Wariner claiming silver and David Neville bronze but with a champions' bye for Berlin Wariner did not need to race and Neville could only manage fifth place in 45.49. Lashinda Demus took the women's 400m hurdles final from Sheena Tosta and Tiffany Williams with the fastest time in the world this year. Olympic silver medallist David Payne staged an upset in form to win the men's 110 metres hurdles from Terrence Trammell.

Elsewhere, Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Usain Bolt held off his rival Asafa Powell to win the 100m title at the Jamaican Championships in Kingston. The 22-year-old won with the fastest wind-legal time in the world this year of 9.86secs while Powell came in second at 9.97secs. * PA Sport

Super 30

Produced: Sajid Nadiadwala and Phantom Productions
Directed: Vikas Bahl
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Srivastav, Mrinal Thakur
Rating: 3.5 /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.”

UAE SQUAD

UAE team
1. Chris Jones-Griffiths 2. Gio Fourie 3. Craig Nutt 4. Daniel Perry 5. Isaac Porter 6. Matt Mills 7. Hamish Anderson 8. Jaen Botes 9. Barry Dwyer 10. Luke Stevenson (captain) 11. Sean Carey 12. Andrew Powell 13. Saki Naisau 14. Thinus Steyn 15. Matt Richards

Replacements
16. Lukas Waddington 17. Murray Reason 18. Ahmed Moosa 19. Stephen Ferguson 20. Sean Stevens 21. Ed Armitage 22. Kini Natuna 23. Majid Al Balooshi