Eduardo Maceira, right, of Venezuela tries to tackle Tunisia's Chiheb Jbeli. Satish Kumar / The National
Eduardo Maceira, right, of Venezuela tries to tackle Tunisia's Chiheb Jbeli. Satish Kumar / The National

Round-up: Tunisia and Morocco off to winning starts at U17 World Cup



TUNISIA 2

Jbeli 25’, Ben Labri 47’ (pen)

VENEZUELA 1

Marquez 51’

SHARJAH // Tunisia had one player less than Venezuela for the best part of an hour and just a 36 per cent share of possession, but still registered three points in their Group D opener on Friday.

Chiheb Jebeli gave the north African side a first-half lead and Mohammed Ben Larbi doubled their advantage just after half time from the spot.

That penalty was one of the few forays the Tunisian made outside their half in the second phase though.

Venezuela turned the numerical advantage brought about by the first half dismissal of Sabri Akrout into a wealth of possession – but only managed a single Jose Marquez goal for their efforts.

Clearly Abdelhay ben Soltane, the Tunisia coach, is an adept risk manager, given that he reckoned afterwards that everything had gone exactly to plan.

“We had trained for this situation, to have one player less,” the Tunisia coach said. “At this age you must present them with problems and let them come up with the solutions.

“But I didn’t expect it to happen in the very first game. We did well on the counter attack and defended well for 60 minutes with one player less.”

Rafael Dudamel, the Venezuela coach, said his side can still advance to the knockout stage despite their opening day loss.

“Of course it was not our plan to miss out on these three points, but this team is capable of coming back and winning the remaining two games,” Dudamel said.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

CROATIA 1

Muric 59’

MOROCCO 3

Achahbar 27’, 40’, Jaadi 45’

Karim Achahbar was twice on target as Morocco celebrated their first appearance in a Fifa Under 17 World Cup tournament with a 3-1 win over Croatia in Group C.

Nabil Jaadi backed up the Guingamp striker’s double to make it 3-0 at half time.

Robert Muric scored a consolation for Croatia on 57 minutes but Morocco should have added to their tally when Younes Bnou Marzouk rounded the goalkeeper only to hit inexplicably wide of the open net.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

PANAMA 0

UZBEKISTAN 2

Abbasov 68’, Ashurmatov 76’

Asian Under 17 champions Uzbekistan were 2-0 winners over Panama thanks to second-half goals from substitute Shohjahon Abbasov and Rustamjon Ashurmatov.

Abbasov applied the finishing touch to Jamshid Boltaboev’s free kick on 68 minutes and Ashurmatov rifled in a left-foot volley eight minutes later.

pradley@thenational.ae

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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.”

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