Austrians Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar in the women’s 470 Class on Thursday. Courtesy Pedro Martinez / ISAF
Austrians Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar in the women’s 470 Class on Thursday. Courtesy Pedro Martinez / ISAF
Austrians Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar in the women’s 470 Class on Thursday. Courtesy Pedro Martinez / ISAF
Austrians Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar in the women’s 470 Class on Thursday. Courtesy Pedro Martinez / ISAF

Sport

Sailors enjoy ‘amazing’ conditions on Day 1 of ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi

England’s Bryony Shaw paving the way with a fine start to her title defence. She took the opening race win in the women’s RS:X ahead of Brazilian Patricia Freitas and Helene Noesmoen of France, writes Amith Passela.

Amith Passela
Amith Passela

October 29, 2015

  • English
  • Arabic

ABU DHABI // With the sun on their backs, the majority of the sailors from Europe enjoyed an excellent opening day in the ISAF Sailing World Cup Final on the waters around Lulu Island and the Corniche.

It was a near perfect day for sailing in the capital on Thursday, with England’s Bryony Shaw paving the way with a fine start to her title defence. She took the opening race win in the women’s RS:X ahead of Brazilian Patricia Freitas and Helene Noesmoen of France.

“It was fun sailing out there, nice offshore, windy conditions,” Shaw said. “It was great to get some speed in the wind but still there was pressure to not get stuck in the light winds.

“I feel like I had a good day’s sailing today. I’m here to try and win the gold medal so it’s great to already be ahead.”

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The Austrians Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar, the defending champions in the women’s 470 Class, led from start to finish crossing the line 17 seconds ahead of the Britain’s 2012 Olympic silver medallists Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark.

“The weather was amazing and lovely today, for someone who arrived from a cold and windy weather conditions back home,” said Clark, competing in Abu Dhabi for the first time.

“It’s going to be very tight racing over the next three days, particularly between us, the Austrians and the Japanese boats. However, if the wind drops then some of the others can also be in the mix.”

Clark and Mills have already qualified for next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and every race here is part of their preparation for another medal bid in Brazil.

The Australian pair Mat Belcher and Will Ryan stayed on course of their title defence in the men’s 470 Class.

They were third at the first mark but came through to win by 29 seconds from Austrians Matthias Schmid and Florian Reichstadter, with Americans Stuart McNay and David Hughes in third.

Belcher and Ryan were beaten into second place by McNay and Hughes in the second race but lead the Americans by a point.

After three days of competition, the top 10 sailors from each of the eight Olympic sailing classes, as well as the open kiteboarding competition, will move forward into Sunday’s medal races to decide who leaves Abu Dhabi with World Cup gold, silver and bronze.

apassela@thenational.ae

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Match info

Karnataka Tuskers 110-3

J Charles 35, M Pretorius 1-19, Z Khan 0-16

Deccan Gladiators 111-5 in 8.3 overs

K Pollard 45*, S Zadran 2-18

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Tottenham v Ajax, Tuesday, 11pm (UAE).

Second leg

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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.”

Abu Dhabi