Alexis Sanchez has been granted additional time off following his excursions at the Copa America. Adrian Dennis / AFP
Alexis Sanchez has been granted additional time off following his excursions at the Copa America. Adrian Dennis / AFP

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Alexis Sanchez to miss Arsenal’s first Premier League game, confirms Arsene Wenger

Alexis Sanchez will miss Arsenal's first Premier League game of the season after being given an extended break following his exertions with Chile at the Copa America.

Reuters

July 15, 2015

Alexis Sanchez will miss Arsenal’s first Premier League game of the season after being given an extended break following his exertions with Chile at the Copa America.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said Sanchez would return to the club at the start of August but would then need time to regain match fitness.

Sanchez will miss the Community Shield against league champions Chelsea at Wembley on August 2 as well as the league opener against West Ham United the following week after a gruelling Copa America campaign.

The forward scored the winning penalty for his country in the Copa final against Argentina on July 4 in his 58th game of last season.

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“Alexis will be back on August 3. Usually it takes three weeks to be competitive. With Alexis it could be a bit less. He will miss certainly the first game,” Wenger told a news conference in Singapore.

“He is an important player for us and he showed he has the winning mentality when he took on the responsibility to take the last penalty in the Copa America final against Argentina.”

The 26-year-old Sanchez became a pivotal figure in Arsenal’s campaign last season, helping them put a superb run of results together in the second half of the campaign.

Their hopes of sustaining a credible title challenge this season have been given a boost after they managed to persuade Chelsea to allow keeper Petr Cech to join one of their direct rivals.

“It’s true not many players leave Chelsea for Arsenal, but the deal itself was not too difficult,” Wenger said.

“The decision was difficult because I felt our two goalkeepers did very well last season, but, on the other hand, we could add experience and strengthen the belief of our squad.”

Goalkeeper has long been a problem position for Arsenal with David Ospina and Wojciech Szczesny both culpable for errors last term as the side finished third.

Cech’s arrival has been greeted warmly by Germany international Per Mertesacker, who will be marshalling the defensive line in front of the Czech shot stopper.

“There’s even more belief now and we feel very confident at the back. There are many doubters out there, but we feel a lot stronger with Petr Cech,” he said.

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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.

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“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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