UAE

Wife of England's football captain seeks shelter in Dubai from the storm

The wife of the England footballer John Terry has come to Dubai seeking solace from a growing storm over her husband's affair with the girlfriend of a former teammate.

Loveday Morris

February 02, 2010

The wife of the England footballer John Terry has come to Dubai seeking solace from a growing storm over her husband's affair with the girlfriend of a former teammate. Toni Terry, 29, arrived on Saturday night accompanied by the couple's three-year-old twins and her mother shortly after asking the England captain and Chelsea player for a divorce, the UK newspaper The Sun reported.

"Toni has simply had enough," the newspaper quoted a source close to the family as saying. "She has told John in no uncertain terms she wants a divorce. "They had a brief conversation and she said she was flying away. "Toni feels the best thing for both of them was for her to get some space and for him to concentrate on football and his career." News of Terry's four-month affair with Vanessa Perroncel, a lingerie model and the girlfriend of his fellow England footballer Wayne Bridge, broke on Friday when a high court judge lifted an injunction that had barred reporting of the matter.

Terry and Bridge, besides playing together for the national team, spent almost six years as teammates at Chelsea. Bridge is currently with Manchester City. Mrs Terry and Ms Perroncel, with whom Bridge has a four-year-old son, were also close friends. More controversy followed as allegations emerged that Terry, 29, arranged for Ms Perroncel to have an abortion after getting her pregnant. Mrs Terry is reportedly considering hiring Fiona Shackleton, a divorce lawyer famous for defending members of the British royal family and celebrities including Paul McCartney and Madonna.

The trip to Dubai may bring back troubling memories for Mrs Terry; her husband proposed to her in the city in 2003 and the couple returned for their honeymoon four years later. Terry has said he and his wife have "a special connection" to the city and visited in July last year, staying at Jumeirah Beach Beit Al Bahar. Terry's captaincy of the England team is at stake over the incident. It is understood that if Bridge decides he wants to continue to play for England, but not under Terry, then Terry will be stripped of his rank.

Several players for the Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City wore jerseys emblazoned with the slogan "Team Bridge" for their match against Portsmouth on Sunday, in support of their teammate. @Email:lmorris@thenational.ae

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

While you're here

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.”