Mullen bags a special double

ABU DHABI // The President's Cup winning jockey Richard Mullen made it a memorable double over the two days by landing the Ashgatab Gold Trophy on the Satish Seemar-trained Montmorency at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club. Mullen, who won the Dh 1 million Group-1 race onboard Saifaldin Deeb's Jarnin on Sunday, made every yard of the running to win the seven furlong race for the thoroughbreds from Dan Chillingworth and the top weight Bab Al Bahrain last night. "He disappointed last time over the mile trip but had run a good race to finish third prior to that over the course and distance. He has been training well and ran a good race, true to his potential," said Mullen. The trainer Gillian Duffield had made a sweep of the two prizes for the Purebred Arabians with AF Alghabra and Sakre D'or in the three-race card sponsored by the Ministry of Presidential Affairs on the special occasion to mark the visit of the Turkmenistan president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow. AF Alghabra completed a hat trick this season for the trainer-jockey Duffield-Tadhg O'Shea partnership when she won the Emirates Challenge Cup earlier. The five-year-old daughter of Amer made smooth progress to win from Eric Lemartinel's trio Albar Lotois, Dahes and Naseem Al Reef in the 16-runner field. "That's three wins from three starts for this mare this season," said O'Shea. "She has good turn of foot for a local bred. I had a good rail position on her, and when I asked for her effort, she quickened to win very well." Richard Hills got up in the last stride on Sakre D'or to win the Turkmenistan Gold Cup from Omayade Thabet, who tried to make all under the Italian apprentice Antioco Murgia in the handicap over 11 furlongs. Muzoon De Faust finished third. "He stuck his head out and it was a brave effort," said Hills. The Englishman rode a waiting race and had to come from a long way from behind to steer the son of Al Sakbe to his first win in three starts for the season.

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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Mullen bags a special double

The President's Cup winning jockey landed the Ashgatab Gold Trophy on the special race day to mark the visit of the Turkmenistan president.

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