With the Euro 2016 quarter-final round officially begun on Thursday night, we collate our best content from the previous 24 hours to keep you on top of the latest from the tournament.
1 – Portugal move on and yet hold promise
Cristiano Ronaldo and Co advanced past Poland on penalties, and Ian Hawkey writes if it has not been especially convincing, it has nonetheless been encouraging in ways.
Particularly from Renato Sanches, Thursday night's goalscorer:
“Everybody in the Portugal camp, talks of Renato’s fearlessness. ‘It doesn’t matter how old he is,’ remarked Ricardo Carvalho, the defender, a colleague more than twice Renato’s age. ‘When he comes onto the pitch, he is a man, and he brings with him intensity.’
“Soon after he had scored, he was driving goalwards again, his surge snuffed out by Krzysztof Maczynski.
“As recently as last November, Renato was playing in Portgual’s Under-19 league, for Benfica’s juniors. By the end of that month, having been promoted to the first-team squad he had made his Champions League debut and in April played impressively enough in the tight quarter-final of that competition against Bayern Munich that the Bundesliga holders made their bold move. Benfica had taken the precaution of raising the young man’s buyout clause to a whopping €80 million (Dh326.3m).
“If he reaches all the targets sewn into his contract with them, Benfica might end up with a sum very close to that; the initial fee is €35m, hefty for a teenager with barely half a senior season under his belt.
“Under his braids, he is an exciting footballer, industrious, brave and dynamic. Portugal needed that against a Poland who had been protecting their excellent start ably enough.”
2 – Axel Witsel, divisive and yet indispensable
Ian Hawkey identifies a perhaps unlikely X-factor in Belgium’s mission to reach the semi-finals ahead of Wales: oft-maligned Zenit Saint Petersburg defensive midfielder Axel Witsel.
Ian writes it is Witsel's stellar defensive nous that will be key to stopping Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey for his Belgian side:
“He has the firm trust of Wilmots, and the helpful memory of having kept Lionel Messi pretty quiet at the same stage of the last World Cup.”
3 – Britain’s best
Richard Jolly, meanwhile, writes Wales, as Britain's last stand at Euro 2016, have proved that in this moment they are the best the UK have to offer:
“Times have changed. Wales, officially the 117th best team in international football in 2011, could be one of Europe’s top four by the end of Friday night. There is an awareness that such opportunities may not present themselves again.”
4 – Del Bosque leaves
Apart from Portugal’s progress to the semi-finals, the other big news on Thursday night was the resignation of Spain manager Vicente Del Bosque. The man who led his nation to the 2010 World Cup and 2012 European Championship, Del Bosque left his position after disappointing defences of both the world and European titles.
Here is a look at where it went wrong for one of the most decorated managers in the world.
5 – Eden Hazard back in action
Eden Hazard left Belgium’s round of 16 contest against Hungary, and had yet to show in the last few days he was fully fit and ready for the quarter-final affair.
Fans of the Belgians can rest a little easier, however, as he was out and active in training on Thursday.
Check out some images from the session in our photo gallery.
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.”
