Ma'a Nonu, left, holds onto the ball as fellow centre Malakai Fekitoa looks on during the New Zealand All Blacks captain's run at the Waikato Stadium on June 20, 2014 in Hamilton, New Zealand. David Rogers / Getty Images
Ma'a Nonu, left, holds onto the ball as fellow centre Malakai Fekitoa looks on during the New Zealand All Blacks captain's run at the Waikato Stadium on June 20, 2014 in Hamilton, New Zealand. David Show more

Sport

All Blacks on brink of history with winning streak

In the third and final Test of their series against England on Saturday, New Zealand can equal a record of 17 successive victories in international rugby.

Reuters

June 21, 2014

In the third and final match of their series against England in Hamilton on Saturday, the All Blacks can equal the record for successive Test victories and send an emphatic message to their World Cup challengers.

Steve Hansen’s side have won their past 16 internationals and stand one victory away from equalling the record among tier one nations jointly held by the 1965-69 All Blacks and the 1997-98 South African teams.

Twice in the past four years the team have been on the cusp of equalling that mark. Last time was in 2012 when they were held to an 18-all draw by Australia, while the Wallabies also ended a 15-game winning run in 2010 with a 26-24 victory.

Hansen played down the record this week but hooker Keven Mealamu said he believed it would play some part in their preparations.

Hansen and assistant coach Ian Foster have since said that, if the All Blacks get their performance right at Waikato Stadium, the result and record will take care of itself.

The All Blacks have No 8 Kieran Read back from concussion and give exciting rookie Malakai Fekitoa a start at centre in place of the injured Conrad Smith. England coach Stuart Lancaster has made no secret he is building a side for the home World Cup next year and the series against the All Blacks would allow him to benchmark his team and their progress.

The side have impressed with their combative nature and their willingness to use the ball and develop a wide game plan, if they may not quite have achieved what they set out to do.

There is a paucity of true ball handlers among his tight five, while his big loose forwards do not have the same skill level of their All Blacks counterparts.

When the All Blacks also upped the tempo last week in Dunedin, England failed to stay with them and the 28-27 scoreline flattered the northern hemisphere team.

Lancaster has also had to chop and change his selections through this series because of the late arrival of 16 players from the English club final and has been unable to settle on a top combination.

He made wholesale changes for today, with Manu Tuilagi reunited with Kyle Eastmond in the centres after the former rugby league player was not considered for the match in Dunedin.

Lancaster also reunited his halves pairing from the first Test at Eden Park of Freddie Burns and Ben Youngs, after injury forced Owen Farrell and Danny Care out of contention, though Youngs and Burns proved in Auckland they could control a match.

He also added some explosive bulk to his pack with Billy Vunipola shifting off the bench to start at No 8 with the athletic Courtney Lawes joining Geoff Parling in the second row and New Zealand-born hooker Dylan Hartley also starting.

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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.”