The Indian bowler Ishant Sharma, right, celebrates after he dismissed Australian batsman Jason Krejza.
The Indian bowler Ishant Sharma, right, celebrates after he dismissed Australian batsman Jason Krejza.

Sport

India regains upper hand

India lead Australia by 86 runs at stumps on the third day of the series-deciding fourth Test after dismissing the visitors for 355.

NAGPUR // India lead Australia by 86 runs at stumps on the third day of the series-deciding fourth Test today after dismissing the visitors for 355. India ended at 0-0 after Virender Sehwag safely negotiated one over. The off-spinner Harbhajan Singh earlier led a tight Indian bowling performance to counter the hardworking efforts of Michael Hussey and opener Simon Katich. Australia trail 1-0 in the four-Test series for the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

Hussey edged the visitors closer to India's 441 with a 229-ball knock of 90 after Katich added his fifth Test century, but the hosts held the upper hand. Australia started well in their chase with Hussey and Katich dragging the team slowly to 229 for 2 before India fought back and regained control with three wickets in the middle session. The all-rounder Cameron White steered a lower-order fightback with 46, but the end of the innings came when he holed out to deep mid-on off Harbhajan Singh and Mitchell Johnson followed in a similar manner.

Harbhajan finished with figures of 3-94 while the leg-spinner Amit Mishra collected 2-58. India, needing only a draw in this match to claim the series, employed defensive tactics for their pacemen throughout the day and slowly wore down the batsmen. Australia scored just 42 runs in the morning session for the loss of Katich, managed 49 between lunch and tea, and collected another 75 before the innings ended shortly before stumps.

Hussey, who started the day on 45, sweated over his 12th Test half-century and narrowly missed reaching three figures when he was run out by a brilliant piece of fielding from rookie Murali Vijay. Hussey drove Harbhajan hard off the back foot, but Vijay intercepted the shot at silly point and threw it back to the wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who pushed the ball on to the stumps. Australia's situation worsened when Shane Watson (2) was bowled two overs later when he attempted to defend against Harbhajan's delivery, only for it to bounce under his bat and onto the stumps.

Watson's dismissal left Australia at 266-6 before Brad Haddin and White combined for 52 valuable runs for the seventh wicket. Haddin padded up to a big-turning leg-spinner from Mishra on 28, with the ball clipping the dangling bat on the way through to Rahul Dravid at first slip. Harbhajan created regular danger and was backed up by Ishant Sharma, who returned 2-64 from 26 overs, and Zaheer Khan (1-68).

Katich, who was dropped from the Test team in 2005, was brought back in May and his 102 from 189 balls added to his tally of 652 runs at an average of 59.27, with three centuries, over the past seven matches. Hussey and Katich resumed the third day at 189-2 and combined in an unflustered 155-run stand that gradually moved Australia closer toward matching India's score. Katich, who was dropped at first slip by Dravid on 94, was lbw to Khan to a ball swinging into the left-hander to start a slide of 4-37.

After lunch Sharma forced Michael Clarke (8) into an edge from a leg-cutter and Dhoni accepted the catch. Another problem for the tourists is the health of bowling spearhead Brett Lee, who dropped down to No. 11 due to bouts of nausea and dehydration. *AP

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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.”