DELAWARE PARK // Sand Witchh proved too good for her rivals and recorded her seventh consecutive victory to get the Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Flat Racing Festival's Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup race off to a memorable start. With William Hollick, the jockey, making no mistakes on Sand Witchh, the four-year-old mare by Burning Sand was in top form, winning the Group 3 race on Saturday by more than four lengths over Frysk Me Now and Full Of Fiesta, which made a strong finish in third.
The race had a total prize fund of US$40,000 (Dh147,000). With the Delaware Racecourse decked out with flags of the racing festival, the nine Arabian horses were involved in an exciting competition, with Sand Witchh remaining unbeaten in seven career starts. "She is such a great horse and has a great temperament," said Tracy Nunley, the winning trainer. "She has not had much exposure with just one run this year but Sand Witchh proved she is in a class of her own."
Just before the Zayed Cup race, trainer Todd Fletcher's Life At Ten scored her sixth successive win in the Delaware Handicap with a prize money of $750,000 on offer. Yousef al Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to the US, who distributed the trophies, said: "This is a proud day for the UAE in staging the race festival for the first time here in the US. "The large turnout of fans and their support has been encouraging, and such events are a vehicle to keep the heritage and culture of the UAE reaching all over the world."
Otaiba thanked Sheikh Mansour for bringing the race to the US and said "such events will help strengthen and boost the ties between the UAE and the US". Lara Sawaya, the director of the racing festival, said: "The favourite Sand Witchh winning with the jockey wearing the colours of the UAE flag complemented the huge success that this race in the US has achieved." Ali Moosa al Khamiri, general manager of Dubai Equestrian Club, who also took part in the prize distribution, said: "The UAE has been playing a great role in supporting Arabian races all over the world. Today's race was of the highest standard."
Stephen Bowey, director of communications at Invest AD, said: "Once again racing fans got to witness a fantastic contest between the purebred Arabian horses and with the large crowd watching the action, it was a satisfying event for Invest AD to be associated with." * Agency
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Director: Fernando Meirelles
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce
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Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
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Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
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Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
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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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Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
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