Antonio Nogueira, centre, and Roy Nelson, right, face off after the weigh-in for UFC Fight Night 39 on April 10, 2014, in Abu Dhabi. Maxx Wolfson / Getty Images
Antonio Nogueira, centre, and Roy Nelson, right, face off after the weigh-in for UFC Fight Night 39 on April 10, 2014, in Abu Dhabi. Maxx Wolfson / Getty Images

Other Sport

UFC’s return to UAE offers spectators plenty of quality

Co-main event could end up being just as memorable as the grand finale

Osman Samiuddin

April 10, 2014

“All I know is you have to watch,” Roy “Big Country” Nelson said at the weigh-in, “because we have five rounds of full action.”

Nelson was hyping his main event heavyweight bout with Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira at the weigh-in yesterday, but he could easily have been speaking of the whole fight card.

Tonight marks the return of UFC to Abu Dhabi after four years, long overdue given the place martial and combat sports hold in the country. Nelson and Nogueira headline what promises to be a compelling nine-fight card at du Arena.

The co-main event, for example, between Clay "The Carpenter" Guida and Tatsuya "The Crusher" Kawajiri will be recognised by avid fight followers as a potential classic. Certainly that is the view of Garry Cook, the UFC executive vice president and managing director for EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa).

“Clay Guida, watch that fight,” Cook told The National. “That guy is so pumped, he cannot wait to get into the octagon. He’s fighting a very, very talented kid in Kawajiri and that one is the one for me. There’s going to be some fireworks in that.”

The card is part of a renewed UFC effort to establish the sport in fresher markets around the world, including this region where, organisers believe, the market is ripe for it.

Ticket sales for the event have been encouraging, though Cook is keen to point out UFC are approaching the event cautiously. Cook said he would be happy with a 5,000-6,000 attendance figure.

Yesterday, after the weigh-in, organisers pulled together the entire roster for a speech. Tonight, the fighters were told, could be the start of a completely new career for any of them.

"The issue in our sport, like all live sport, is that you never know what is going to happen," Cook said. "But five rounds of Nelson-Nogueira, those two guys are going to be hard at it. You wouldn't want to be at the end of either of those two."

osamiuddin@thenational.ae

Follow us on Twitter at @SprtNationalUAE

Ponti

Sharlene Teo, Pan Macmillan

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.”