Sam Warburton and Wales want to continue their recent dominance over Scotland when the two meet at Murrayfield on Sunday. Simon Bellis / AP Images
Sam Warburton and Wales want to continue their recent dominance over Scotland when the two meet at Murrayfield on Sunday. Simon Bellis / AP Images

Sport

Wales want to repeat 2013 Six Nations resurrection

Wales will be seeking to repeat their Six Nations championship recovery mission of 2013 when they meet the challenge of a vastly improved Scotland side at Murrayfield.

Agence France Presse

February 14, 2015

Edinburgh // Wales will be seeking to repeat their Six Nations championship recovery mission of 2013 when they meet the challenge of a vastly improved Scotland side at Murrayfield on Sunday.

Having opened their 2015 campaign with a 21-16 defeat against England at Cardiff, Wales want to emulate the turnaround they achieved two years ago when they were beaten 30-22 at home to Ireland on the opening day only to then win on the road against France at Paris, which set them on course to claim the title.

“Every game is a must-win game for us now,” said Wales captain Sam Warburton.

“We have three away games out of the four, which makes it difficult, but we did it two years ago after losing our first game at home to Ireland.”

Wales launched their 2013 championship comeback with a 16-6 success at Paris, secured with a try by George North, who has been rested for the trip to Edinburgh after two bouts of concussion against England.

The Northampton wing has been replaced by Liam Williams, the former steelworks scaffolder who helped to construct a record 51-3 victory at Cardiff last season with the first of seven Welsh tries against a Scotland side reduced to 14 men after full-back Stuart Hogg was red carded.

“Our performance last week wasn’t good enough,” Wales head coach Warren Gatland said.

“We let ourselves down and we let a lot of the fans down. We’ve got to go up there and get back on the horse.”

Wales have not lost to Scotland under Gatland’s stewardship.

Their last defeat was a 21-9 reverse at Murrayfield in February 2007, nine months before his appointment as head coach.

The New Zealander will be wary of the threat posed by a Scottish team whose performances have been transformed since the arrival of fellow Kiwi Vern Cotter as head coach in May last year.

“Warren Gatland’s record speaks for itself,” Cotter said.

“We’re playing against a team who consider it just a day in the office to come up and beat us.

“I think the players would like to be able to measure themselves against this Welsh group – to see what we need to do so we can develop and improve our game – it will be a great exercise just to see how we measure up.”

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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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