All4One ride a roller-coaster wave

The Franco-German team, All4One emerged this afternoon as the overall round-robin winner in the Louis Vuitton Trophy in La Maddalena, Italy, to wind up a roller-coaster first stage of a regatta that has featured extremely tight racing, smashed boats, race-stopping mistral winds and some very surprising results. Such excitement augurs well for the UAE, with the America's Cup-class event - one of the most prestigious in the sport - coming to Dubai in November for the third of the year's four meetings. To see All4One, a small and young team that runs on a (relative) shoestring budget at the top of the leader board is no less surprising than to see BMW Oracle, the super-heavyweight of the class and the current Defender of the America's Cup, come second to last. With only three wins from nine races, the Americans are out of the regatta. As had been expected, our "home" team, Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ - sponsored by Emirates Airline) made a strong showing throughout, under the leadership of Dean Barker, finishing second equal to Artemis, the Swedish boat helmed by Terry Hutchinson, with Paul Cayard as skipper and tactician. Artemis had held the top spot on the leader board for most of the round-robin, losing it to All4One in a final showdown. Being held in the waters around the small island of La Maddalena, off the north-western coast of Sardinia, the regatta so far has been full of drama, with a series of nail-biting finishes: on Race Day 2, Mascalzone Latino Audi (the Challenger of Record for the 34th America's Cup) beat its old nemesis, Luna Rossa, by a mere five seconds - its first win over its compatriots after seven years of trying. More super-tight wins came for the British TeamOrigin (five seconds, over All4One), ETNZ (four seconds, over Synergy Russian Team) and Mascalzone Latino Audi (one second, over Aleph). The Russians have been another surprise here, improving steadily throughout the regatta, as if galvanised by their upset win over BMW Oracle on Race Day 7. This afternoon, following a brief hiatus when the boats' settings were adjusted for the quarter-finals, Synergy stole an early lead in the best-of-three format with a first race win over Mascalzone Latino Audi. The Italians squared the match in the second race.

The biggest upset of the regatta so far perhaps came on Race Day 4, when a serious start-line collision between Aleph, of France, and the Sardinia-based Azzurra and earned Aleph a one-race disqualification and three penalty points - effectively ending the French team's campaign. The boats - loaned for the regatta by BMW Oracle, which had campaigned them in the 32nd America's Cup in Valencia - suffered significant damage: the bow of USA-87, sailed by Aleph, had its bow almost snapped off, while the aft starboard quarter of USA-98, sailed by Azzurra, was smashed in. With the regatta continuing in the backup pair of boats, loaned by Mascalzone Latino Audi, shore crews have worked around the clock to repair the two Oracle boats - announcing this afternoon that USA-87 would be race-ready again by tomorrow. The next quarter-final pits Emirates Team New Zealand against Azzurra; the other quarter-finalists are Artemis, TeamOrigin, Luna Rossa and All4One. slane@thenational.ae

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.”

Results

6.30pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,200m

Winner: Barack Beach, Richard Mullen (jockey), Satish Seemar (trainer).

7.05pm: Handicap Dh170,000 (D) 1,200m

Winner: Way Of Wisdom, Connor Beasley, Satish Seemar.

7.40pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (D) 1,900m

Winner: Woodditton, Connor Beasley, Ahmad bin Harmash.

8.15pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 2,000m

Winner: Secret Trade, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.

8.50pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 1,600m

Winner: Mark Of Approval, Antonio Fresu, Mahmood Hussain.

9.25pm: Handicap Dh165,000 (D) 2,000m

Winner: Tradesman, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.

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