Andy Murray delight as he leapfrogs Roger Federer in rankings

Andy Murray sealed his third straight title and guaranteed that for the first time he will leapfrog Roger Federer to No 3 in the rankings after a 7-5, 6-4 win over David Ferrer on Sunday in the Shanghai Masters.

Defending champion Murray, 24, was tested by the Spaniard but ultimately had too much for the world No 5, wrapping up his eighth Masters title in one hour and 45 minutes.

"It's been one of the best runs of my life. I've played very, very well the last few weeks and I was very nervous today because I wanted to try and win here and defend my title. I'm very happy I managed to come through," said Murray.

The victory completed a stunning Asian hat-trick for Murray and allowed the suddenly unstoppable Scot to leapfrog 16-times grand-slam champion Federer into third sport to secure his career-best end-of-year world ranking.

Murray's 25th victory from 26 matches sends Federer out of the top three for the first time in eight years.

Murray has now won three titles in as many weeks on the Asian swing of the ATP World Tour - his best winning streak - after his victories in Bangkok and Tokyo.

The defending champion broke the third-seeded Ferrer in the first game but a catalogue of errors then undermined his hard work.

Spaniard Ferrer, hoping for revenge for his 6-2, 6-3 semi-final loss to Murray last weekend, double-faulted with the first set poised at 5-5.

Murray leaped on the error and produced a pair of aces to secure the set.

World number five Ferrer was seeking his first Masters title but his hopes were dashed by an increasingly dominant Murray who ran him ragged for much of the second set.

The Briton lobbed to break Ferrer at 1-1, broke again to repel the Spaniard's last-ditch rally and finished off the match with a sizzling forehand.

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.”