Non-playing captain Tim Sung says his young Chinese Taipei team have “just come here for learning”. But at the halfway stage of the 27th Nomura Cup at Yas Links Abu Dhabi, it is turning into more than just a learning exercise.
After sharing the first-round lead with Japan on Thursday, Chinese Taipei shocked even themselves by forging to a five-stroke buffer atop the leaderboard yesterday.
Led by Chiu Han-ting’s 65, the lowest round of the day, the Chinese Taipei quartet returned a best three of four card team aggregate of 209 (-7) in Round 2.
That left Sung’s team with a 36-hole total of 407, a combined 25 under par. Japan are second on 412 while Thailand head into today’s third round in the bronze medal position on 419, 12 shots off the pace.
Chinese Taipei’s form should not come as a surprise given they had won the gold medal at last year’s Asian Games in South Korea.
But Sung is still surprised.
“I didn’t expect we can win this tournament even though we were the champions from last year at the Asian Games,” he said. “The Nomura Cup is more competition with Australia and New Zealand, Japan, South Korea – they are all good teams. We have only one player from the Asia Games and two very young, inexperienced players.
“After two rounds, 25 under par, that’s pretty nice but the tournament is only halfway so we will see. Whatever the result is it is very good experience for them, we have just come here for learning.”
Sung added that the aim now was to ensure the players kept their feet on the ground and did not look too far ahead with two days of action still to go.
“In any tournament you don’t really know if you have a chance to win until the last nine holes,” he said.
The UAE endured a tough day, left-handed teenager Ahmed Skaik’s 79 the highlight as the hosts go into today’s action on 31 over.
Rashid Hamood (80), Khalid Yousuf (82) and Abdulla Al Qubaisi (86) are the other members of the UAE team.
The first teams are due to tee off at 6.30am today in the third round.
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Leap of Faith
Michael J Mazarr
Public Affairs
Dh67
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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Pakistan squad
Sarfraz (c), Zaman, Imam, Masood, Azam, Malik, Asif, Sohail, Shadab, Nawaz, Ashraf, Hasan, Amir, Junaid, Shinwari and Afridi
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MATCH INFO
Manchester City 1 (Gundogan 56')
Shakhtar Donetsk 1 (Solomon 69')