Paul Casey is due on the Hazeltine tee at 7.45am this morning to begin what should be a powerful challenge for his first major title at the US PGA Championship. The world No 3 plans to keep the next alternate on the entry list waiting until almost the last minute before confirming that he will take part.
The Englishman has been troubled by a rib injury sustained in last month's British Open and it was bad enough to force him to walk off the course after six holes of last week's WGC Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio. He was due to make a final assessment of his condition after yesterday's practice round. Casey, 32, who won the Abu Dhabi championship for the second time in January, issued a medical bulletin on his website.
"A strained intercostal muscle resulted in an early withdrawal [last Thursday] and leaves me uncertain for this week," wrote Casey, the leader of the inaugural Race to Dubai merit table which will determine the 60-man line-up for the Dubai World Championship in November. "The injury actually came about in the lead up to the Open when I was hitting drivers the week before. I've been able to rest it the past few weeks but tweaked it last Monday playing out of the rough. It's a frustrating injury to receive as the only real cure is rest."
Rory McIlroy, who won the European Tour's other UAE tournament - the Dubai Desert Classic - in February, is hoping to come out of a mini-slump at Hazeltine. The young Irishman has been outside the top 40 in his last three events, culminating in a disappointing joint 68th place in the Bridgestone Invitational. "I don't think it's tiredness," he said when pressed on the fatigue factor. "You are always going to get a few lulls along with the highs."
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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.”