Nowitzki hot, Bryant not

Dirk Nowitzki scored 31 points to guide the Dallas Mavericks to a 101-96 win over the Western Conference-leading Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night. The German power forward finished the game strongly with 13 points in the fourth quarter, while Jason Terry had 30 points as the Mavericks (37-21) rolled to their fifth win in a row.

The pair scored 22 of Dallas's final 23 points as the Mavs recorded an impressive victory. "This is our type of ball game," said Terry. "Any time in the fourth quarter and the game is close, it's going to be up to myself, Jason [Kidd] or Dirk to get the win. "I think we welcome that challenge and we don't need to change it right now." Kobe Bryant, who on Tuesday made a game-winning three-pointer against Memphis in his return from a five-game injury absence, missed a three-pointer that would have tied the games against the Mavericks with 25 seconds remaining.

Bryant also misfired on his first five shots and finished nine-for-23 with 20 points. Lamar Odom led the Lakers with 21. "I thought he [Bryant] got other guys involved," said Phil Jackson, the Lakers' coach. "He was probably a little fatigued and tried to help the other guys get going." The victory gave Dallas a 2-2 split in the season series with Los Angeles (43-15). Elsewhere, Kevin Durant's remarkable streak of scoring 25 points in a game ended after 29 matches as the Oklahoma City Thunder lost 95-87 to the San Antonio Spurs.

Durant, who had 21 points, was also involved in the pivotal moment of the game when Manu Ginobili swatted the ball out of his hands to deny him a dunk and the Thunder an easy two points. The play came with less than three minutes remaining and the Thunder trailing by a point. Durant said: "He made a great block. When I was at the rim, he just met me there, his hand was inside the rim and he got it."

Durant was also philosophical about the end of his 25-point-a-game scoring streak. "It was good while it lasted," he said. "Teams are too tough in this league for it to go on like that. " Very fortunate, privileged to do something like that." Tim Duncan had 19 points and 15 rebounds for the Spurs, who finished on a 10-2 scoring run after the game was tied at 85 with less than four minutes left. * With agencies

Company%20profile

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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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