Saudi racer Mashhur Bal Hejaila will be in action this weekend at the Dubai Autdrome. Courtesy photo
Saudi racer Mashhur Bal Hejaila will be in action this weekend at the Dubai Autdrome. Courtesy photo

Saudi Arabia’s Mashhur Bal Hejaila and Emirati Haytham Sultan among racers at Formula Gulf Championship



Saudi Arabia racer Mashhur Bal Hejaila takes a slender points lead into the second event of the 2015/16 Formula Gulf Championship this weekend after a win apiece for him and 15-year-old Danish driver Cato Poulsen at last month’s races on the National Circuit at the Dubai Autodrome.

Qualifying starts at 10.20am and Round 3 starts at 2pm on Friday, with Round 4 at 9.30am on Saturday at the Dubai Autodrome. Free admissison.

Along with Italian karter Giulio Peroni and Saudi’s Omar Gazzaz, Mashhur and Cato will be joined this weekend by a couple of experienced competitors.

Coming all the way from Perth in Western Australia to train and race with the GulfSport team is expert cyclist and F1000 racer Jordan Oon, who is expected to be immediately on the pace this weekend.

Emirati Haytham Sultan, who coincidentally also trained as a professional cyclist, will rejoin the grid in Dubai after a break of two seasons.

It is touch and go for Bahraini karter Abdallah Beshara, who hopes to have his race licence in time to compete in his first car race after a very promising test with GulfSport last month.

Drivers are coached by UK professional Andy Pardoe, trained by Optimal Fitness, stay with hospitality partner Towers Rotana, and compete for an F3 test with Campos Racing in Spain and VIP tickets from Gulf Oil with Aston Martin Racing at the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours.

Championship organiser GulfSport Racing is an ASN Recognised Competition Driving School for drivers planning to move on to international competition.

For more information, visit www.FormulaGulf.com

Racers in action this weekend in Dubai:

5 JORDAN OON (Austrailia)

11 HAYTHAM SULTAN (UAE)

12 CATO POULSON (Denmark)

17 ABDALLAH BESHARA (Bahrain)

18 GIULIO PERONI (Italy)

22 OMAR GAZZAZ (Saudi Arabia)

34 MASHOUR BAL HEJAILA (Saudi Arabia)

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Indoor cricket in a nutshell

Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai

16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side

8 There are eight players per team

There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.

5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls

Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership

Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.

Zones

A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs

B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run

Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs

Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full

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A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

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Past winners of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

2016 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)

2015 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes-GP)

2014 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)

2013 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)

2012 Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)

2011 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)

2010 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)

2009 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)

 

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.”