ABU DHABI // Taleb Saleh Al Kirbi is shaping up to be the new golden boy of UAE jiu-jitsu.
Elevated to black belt, Al Kirbi is the second Emirati to achieve that honour after his more celebrated UAE teammate Faisal Al Ketbi.
Al Kirbi has now struck gold in both his appearances since reaching black belt.
He edged out his national team teammate Mohammed Al Qubaisi in the 76-kilogram weight class in the Ramadan Cup no-gi competition at the Armed Forces Officers Club on Friday night.
Photo gallery: UAE jiu-jitsu fighters win 13 medals during Day 1 of Ramadan Cup
Last month, he returned with a winner’s medal in the Jiu-Jitsu Asian Union (JJAU) South and Central Asia qualifier at Bangalore. Prior to becoming a black belt, he won gold at the Asian Beach Games in Phuket last November but had to settle for silver in the Abu Dhabi World Professional Championships in April as a brown belt.
“To compete in the black belt division is a new challenge,” Al Kirbi said. “It is a lot tougher, but that’s what the sport is all about, testing your capabilities at the highest level.”
He had one opponent, Brazilian Thiago Silva, to overcome while Al Qubaisi had to go through two bouts, both against Brazilians – Jose Junior and Alexandre di Salgado.
“Losing to Taleb wasn’t a problem,” said Al Qubaisi, who was also a gold medallist at the Bangalore event
“He’s a tough opponent and I am one level (brown belt) below him. I managed to give him a good fight.”
Jose Junior, Al Qubaisi’s opponent in the opening bout, experienced a tough start in his first competition in the UAE.
“I arrived last week after joining Palm Sports (the technical arm of the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation) as an instructor and entered this event,” said the 35-year-old Pan American and two-time Brazilian national champion.
“It was a great first experience for me to compete with a national team player and learn the level of their skills. I have been an instructor for over 10 years but compete regularly.
“I haven’t been training for more than two weeks, as I had to prepare to fly over to the UAE, but I will start training and raise my game to take part in the next competition.
“But it shouldn’t take anything away from Mohammed’s victory. I came across an opponent who was strong both technically and physically.”
The Emirati fighters won four gold, four silver and five bronze medals in the 15 weight categories that were on the mats during the first day of the two-day competition.
Anes Ali Albareq took the 76kg purple belt gold from John O’Reilly of Ireland.
“I have been getting better every year since I started practicing the martial art four years ago,” the UAE-born Yemeni said.
“It is my third year, and I am returning with a gold medal after the bronze and silver I won in the first two years. I just love this competition because it has an international flavour with a good number of expatriate and foreign participants.”
The remaining gold medals were shared by winners from 10 different countries – Brazil, New Zealand, Iran, the United States, Great Britain, Bahrain, Comoros, Azerbaijan, Jordan and Turkmenistan.
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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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