The postponement of the Tokyo Games next year because of the coronavirus pandemic will cost the International Olympic Committee (IOC) "several hundred million dollars", according to its president Thomas Bach.
Writing to the Olympic movement, Bach said the IOC was already forced to shoulder "several hundred million US dollars of postponement costs," saying it would honour its financial obligations to Tokyo, but would probably have to make cuts.
"We also need to look into and review all the services that we provide for these postponed Games," he added.
"The IOC will continue to be responsible for its share of the operational burden and its share of the costs for these postponed Games."
The IOC, which has approximately $1 billion (Dh3.6bn) in reserves, took the historic decision to postpone the Games, scheduled to open on July 24, until July 23 to August 8, 2021.
If the coronavirus pandemic is not brought under control within a year, the Games cannot be postponed again and will be cancelled, the head of the organising committee (COJO) Yoshiro Mori warned on Tuesday.
A task force, which brings together the IOC and various partners, including COJO, "has established the priorities and management strategies to make these postponed Olympic Games feasible and successful", Bach said.
"At this moment, nobody knows what the realities of the post-coronavirus world will look like," Bach said. "What is clear, however, is that probably none of us will be able to sustain every single initiative or event that we were planning before this crisis hit."
The German, 66, also said the Olympic movement should consider its relationship with esports in light of social distancing.
"Whilst maintaining our principles by respecting the red line, with regard to the Olympic values, we encourage all our stakeholders even more urgently to 'consider how to govern electronic and virtual forms of their sport and explore opportunities with game publishers'," he said.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
ELIO
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Retirement funds heavily invested in equities at a risky time
Pension funds in growing economies in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have a sharply higher percentage of assets parked in stocks, just at a time when trade tensions threaten to derail markets.
Retirement money managers in 14 geographies now allocate 40 per cent of their assets to equities, an 8 percentage-point climb over the past five years, according to a Mercer survey released last week that canvassed government, corporate and mandatory pension funds with almost $5 trillion in assets under management. That compares with about 25 per cent for pension funds in Europe.
The escalating trade spat between the US and China has heightened fears that stocks are ripe for a downturn. With tensions mounting and outcomes driven more by politics than economics, the S&P 500 Index will be on course for a “full-scale bear market” without Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, Citigroup’s global macro strategy team said earlier this week.
The increased allocation to equities by growth-market pension funds has come at the expense of fixed-income investments, which declined 11 percentage points over the five years, according to the survey.
Hong Kong funds have the highest exposure to equities at 66 per cent, although that’s been relatively stable over the period. Japan’s equity allocation jumped 13 percentage points while South Korea’s increased 8 percentage points.
The money managers are also directing a higher portion of their funds to assets outside of their home countries. On average, foreign stocks now account for 49 per cent of respondents’ equity investments, 4 percentage points higher than five years ago, while foreign fixed-income exposure climbed 7 percentage points to 23 per cent. Funds in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are among those seeking greater diversification in stocks and fixed income.
• Bloomberg
The Details
Article 15
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
