Scottish giants Celtic were handed the unenviable task of taking down traditional Italian power club Inter Milan in the Europa League round of 32 draw on Monday.
Celtic finished second in a group with Red Bull Salzburg, Dinamo Zagreb and Astra Giurgiu, this after exiting the Champions League in the play-off round to Slovenians Maribor only after they advanced from the third qualifying round on a technicality against Legia Warsaw, who dominated their tie 6-1 but fielded an ineligible player toward the end of the second leg.
Now Celtic must Inter Milan, mired in a difficult season in Serie A, where they are 12th, but who went through the group phase unbeaten.
Liverpool, fresh off their own Champions League exit, landed a challenge in Turkish leaders Besiktas, who also completed an unbeaten group campaign and edged Tottenham Hotspur for the top of Group C.
Spurs themselves have been paired with Fiorentina, like Inter struggling with indifferent form in Serie A at eighth.
Everton, winners of a tough Group H over Wolfsburg and eliminated sides Krasnodar and Lille, earn a reasonable draw with Swiss club Young Boys.
Legia, knocked out of the Champions League for their infraction, won Group L and will now get a tough assignment in Dutch giants Ajax.
Other matches pitting clubs from Europe’s biggest leagues include Sevilla of La Liga and Borussia Monchengladbach of the Bundesliga and Torino (Serie A) v Athletic Bilbao (La Liga).
Italy’s AS Roma, descending from the Champions League, faces Feyenoord of the Netherlands, Andre Villas-Boas’ Zenit St Petersurg side, also dropping out of Europe’s top-tier competition, face Dutch leaders PSV Eindhoven.
Sporting Lisbon, too, arrives in the Europa League via a third-place finish in their Champions League group, and face Bundesliga side Wolfsburg.
Aalborg of Denmark and Club Brugge of Belgium; Anderlecht of Belgium and Dinamo Moscow of Russia; Dnipro of Ukraine and Olympiakos of Greece; and Villarreal of Spain and Red Bull Salzburg of Austria; Guingamp of France and Dynamo Kiev of Ukraine; and Napoli of Italy and Trabzonspor of Turkey will all face off, as well.
The first legs of the first knockout round will be played on February 19, and the second on February 26.
Round of 32 draw:
Young Boys (Switzerland) v Everton (England)
Torino (Italy) v Athletic Bilbao (Spain)
Sevilla (Spain) v Borussia Monchengladbach (Germany)
Wolfsburg (Germany) v Sporting Lisbon (Portugal)
Ajax Amsterdam (Netherlands) v Legia Warsaw (Poland)
Aalborg (Denmark) v Club Brugge (Belgium)
Anderlecht (Belgium) v Dinamo Moscow (Russia)
Dnipro (Ukraine) v Olympiakos (Greece)
Trabzonspor (Turkey) v Napoli (Italy)
Guingamp (France) v Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine)
Villarreal (Spain) v Red Bull Salzburg (Austria)
AS Roma (Italy) v Feyenoord (Netherlands)
PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) v Zenit St Petersburg (Russia)
Liverpool (England) v Besiktas (Turkey)
Tottenham Hotspur (England) v Fiorentina (Italy)
Inter Milan (Italy) v Celtic (Scotland)
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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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.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
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