Chelsea and England teammates Gary Cahill and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have said former club colleagues Radamel Falcao and Juan Cuadrado could pose plenty of danger for Colombia in the World Cup last-16 tie on Tuesday.
Colombia, as winners of Group H, take on Group G runners-up England at the Spartak Stadium on Tuesday for a place in the quarter-finals.
And while the match in Moscow will centre largely on the fitness of James Rodriguez, who came off injured in Colombia's win over Senegal, Falcao and Cuadrado are just as important to their cause, according to Cahill and Loftus-Cheek.
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Cahill knows Falcao from their time together at Chelsea, where the striker spent an ill-fated season on loan in 2015/16, and warned England cannot afford to see him as the forward who managed just five goals in two Premier League seasons.
"Falcao had a difficult time in England clearly, but outside of England he's a very high-profile player," said Cahill of a player who has scored 51 goals for Monaco in the past two campaigns.
"He's scored many, many goals. He did have a difficult time in England, showed his character when he went to find his form again and now he's a huge player for them.
"I'm sure a huge amount was probably confidence. He had that spell at Manchester United, then he had that spell at us, he was short of sharpness at both of them.
"I suppose in his eyes, the rest is history, he's refound his form now. He's tricky in the box, he likes to come off the shoulder a little bit, and he's a good finisher.
"When he gets half a chance, we saw that in training he's a decent finisher. Everyone knows him, everyone's aware of him, his ability."
Loftus-Cheek, a Chelsea Academy graduate who spent last season on loan at Crystal Palace, also worked with Falcao and Cuadrado at the Stamford Bridge club and gave a ringing endorsement of their skill.
"When I was at Chelsea training with them obviously Cuadrado didn't get much game time but he still looked sharp," he said.
"He is so sharp and he can just do things off the cuff, he gets past defenders. As for Falcao we all know what a player he is. Falcao is always a goal threat and he has been for his entire career.
"It will be a difficult game, just like any other at the World Cup. So we will need to analyse Colombia and work out how we want to play against them."
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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