At Swiss Indoors, Roger Federer can gain ground on No 1 and Rafa Nadal can gain strength

Home hero Roger Federer and ailing Rafael Nadal will be working to completely different agendas when the Swiss Indoors begins on Monday.

The event, which Basel-born Federer has won five times, marks the penultimate week of the points race to the ATP World Tour Finals in London, beginning in just over three weeks.

The 33-year-old Federer is among those already qualified, along with Novak Djokovic, Nadal, Australian Open winner Stan Wawrinka and US Open champion Marin Cilic.

Federer, who has played the last eight finals at the St Jakobshalle – he stands 37-3 at home – looks to close in on the year-end No 1 ranking held by Djokovic.

Nadal, meanwhile, will be desperately seeking some reassurance.

The nine-time French Open winner has not played in Federer’s backyard for a decade and missed last year with fatigue after signing a three-year appearance fee contract in 2012 which he has yet to start honouring.

Even with an appendix which will require surgery in the coming weeks, the 28-year-old Spaniard looks determined to at least make an attempt at an appearance for Swiss fans as he searches for his first win in the city after losses in 2003 and 2004.

Nadal’s camp says they will decide with doctors after Basel whether or not the world No 3 should play the Paris Masters or go for surgery on his painful appendix which he has been treating with antibiotics.

Basel will be crucial in shaking out the race for the remaining places in the field at the eight-man World Tour Finals showpiece.

Federer begins in the first round against Luxembourg veteran Gilles Muller while Nadal takes on a qualifier.

Third seed Wawrinka starts against Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan who was a semi-finalist in Moscow on Saturday.

Milos Raonic takes the fourth seeding with the Canadian hoping to have recovered from illness which compromised his last two events, in Shanghai and Moscow. He plays American Steve Johnson.

Fellow year-end contender Grigor Dimitrov is seeded fifth ahead of Ernests Gulbis, number seven David Goffin and eighth seed Ivo Karlovic.

THE BIO

Bio Box

Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul

Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader

Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Favorite food: seafood

Favorite place to travel: Lebanon

Favorite movie: Braveheart

Test

Director: S Sashikanth

Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan

Star rating: 2/5

How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?

Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269

*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year

Electric scooters: some rules to remember

Riders must be 14-years-old or over
Wear a protective helmet
Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
Do not drive outside designated lanes

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.”

The biog

Year of birth: 1988

Place of birth: Baghdad

Education: PhD student and co-researcher at Greifswald University, Germany

Hobbies: Ping Pong, swimming, reading

Killing of Qassem Suleimani

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Jack Moore: Why the assassination is such a monumental gamble

Matthew Levitt: Iran retains its ability to launch terror attacks

Damien McElroy: A CEO tasked with spreading Iran's influence

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Cinco in numbers

Dh3.7 million

The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown

46

The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.

1,000

The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]

50

How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday

3,000

The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

1.1 million

The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.

PROFILE OF SWVL

Started: April 2017

Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh

Based: Cairo, Egypt

Sector: transport

Size: 450 employees

Investment: approximately $80 million

Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani

COMPANY PROFILE

Name: Kumulus Water

Started: 2021

Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid

Based: Tunisia

Sector: Water technology

Number of staff: 22

Investment raised: $4 million