SYDNEY // Three teams, one from Australia and two from South Africa, will be axed from Super Rugby as the mainly southern hemisphere competition reverts to 15 teams for next season, governing body Sanzaar said on Sunday.
The South African and Australian unions will make the decision over which of their teams will go but the Perth-based Western Force, Bloemfontein side the Cheetahs and Port Elizabeth-based Kings are most vulnerable to the axe.
Australia’s remaining four teams will be joined by Japan’s Sunwolves in one conference in the restructured competition with Argentina’s Jaguares and the four South African teams in another.
New Zealand, whose long dominance of the competition has intensified over the past couple of years, will retain all five teams in a third conference.
“This decision has not been an easy one and we recognise the difficulty associated with reducing the number of teams in Australia and South Africa,” Sanzaar chairman Brent Impey said in a statement.
“Naturally we understand that there will be some very disappointed franchises but the tournament’s long-term future and the economic reality of the business at present is something that had to be addressed.”
The axings come after widespread criticism of the first season of the 18-team format, which was introduced in 2016 after the Jaguares and the Sunwolves joined the competition and the Kings returned.
Sanzaar, made up of the South African, New Zealand, Australian and Argentine unions, met in London last month to try and hammer out a solution to the problems of an over-complicated structure and a dilution in the quality of the product.
Negotiations with broadcasters, who agreed a four-year deal in 2016, and other stakeholders followed amidst a fury of speculation and uncertainty before the decision was announced on Sunday.
Attention will now turn to the teams to be axed.
While the Kings finished bottom of the standings in their first season in 2013 and second bottom on their return last year, the Cheetahs have been much more competitive over their 13 seasons.
Founded as an expansion team in 2006, the Perth-based Force have struggled financially and managed a winning record in just two of their 12 seasons.
The competition started as the Super 12 in 1996, a year after the sport turned professional. It was expanded to 14 teams from 2006 and 15 in 2011 after the Melbourne Rebels were added.
The Rebels have not managed much better than the Force on the pitch but are privately owned, while the Western Australian franchise had to be bailed out by the cash-strapped Australian Rugby Union (ARU) last year.
Impey said the Sunwolves had not been considered for the axe despite their poor playing record in their debut season.
“The decision to retain the Sunwolves is linked directly to Sanzaar’s strategic plan for the future,” he added.
“The potential for growth of the sport in Asia off the back of the establishment of the Sunwolves and the impending World Cup [in Japan] in 2019 is significant.”
* Reuters
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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.
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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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- Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
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- Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
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- Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.
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Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
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