As Leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race approaches its climax in Abu Dhabi this week, the fleet has divided into halves: the contenders and the pretenders.
The boats that finished 1-2-3 in Leg 1 had leads of nearly 300 miles over the other three teams as the fleet concluded its 19th day at sea while approaching the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula.
Team Brunel, the Dutch team, were incrementally adding to their nine-mile lead over Dongfeng, the Chinese boat manned by a mostly French crew.
Click here for all the latest news from the 2014/15 Volvo Ocean Race
Dongfeng had Team Brunel in sight for much of the day, but watched skipper Bouwe Bekking’s boat edging over the horizon.
“We’ve been on the same tack for 48 hours … where in the best case, we’d be matching the speed of our sparring partner, Brunel. But in two days, instead, we’ve gone from eight miles ahead to six miles behind,” wrote Yann Riou, the onboard reporter for Dongfeng.
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Azzam was running third, nearly 30 miles behind Brunel, after having led the race for several days last week.
“We need a lift, a shift in the wind rotating to the right, to help us gain speed and have a chance at Brunel and Dongfeng to the next mark on the course,” wrote Matt Knighton, Azzam’s onboard reporter. “It’s been a battle all day, seemingly bleeding miles to the two teams to windward.
“There is still plenty of race track left: a reaching drag race to Oman, then the light air of the Strait of Hormuz and finally the unpredictable Arabian Gulf as we close in on Abu Dhabi.”
If the leaders finish in their current order, it would create a three-way tie for first place in the overall standings, with each of the teams on four points after two of the nine legs. Points are awarded according to finish, and the low cumulative score wins the round-the-world race.
The Dutch crew was in a fine mood yesterday as they crept away from their closest pursuers. Onboard reporter Stefan Coopers wrote that Bekking “is beaming at the thought of a victory, but he warns, ‘We will pass through the Strait of Hormuz before arriving in Abu Dhabi. It’s a piece of water surrounded by high mountains. … It may be the most difficult part of the race’.”
Team Alvimedica led the second half of the fleet, some 20 miles ahead of Mapfre, who in turn led Team SCA by 75 miles.
The seventh boat, Team Vestas Wind, abandoned the leg after running aground near Mauritius. As in Leg 1, from Alicante to Cape Town, the all-women SCA boat led early in the leg before losing touch with the fleet, in this case because of time spent in light winds.
“Because of these flukey conditions, we can’t help but feel a bit disheartened,” wrote Corinna Halloran, the SCA onboard reporter.
“What have we done to the wind for it to show up for the rest of the fleet and not for us?
“All this said, we’re keeping our heads down – not like an ostrich and in the sand, but more like an eagle building a nest in the mountains. We’re staying focused and really pulling every inch out of every shift and whisper of wind.”
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COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
The biog
Name: Dr Lalia Al Helaly
Education: PhD in Sociology from Cairo
Favourite authors: Elif Shafaq and Nizar Qabbani.
Favourite music: classical Arabic music such as Um Khalthoum and Abdul Wahab,
She loves the beach and advises her clients to go for meditation.
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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.”
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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SPECS
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