Liverpool
Croatian international defender Dejan Lovren has signed a long-term deal with Premier League side Liverpool from Southampton, his new club confirmed on Sunday.
The 25-year-old becomes Brendan Rodgers’ fifth signing of the summer and the third from Southampton, following striker Rickie Lambert and midfielder Adam Lallana.
The deal is reported to be worth an estimated £20 million (Dh124.5m).
A Liverpool statement read: “Liverpool Football Club are delighted to announce the signing of defender Dejan Lovren from Southampton.
“The 25-year-old Croatian international today put pen to paper on a long-term deal with the Reds after completing his medical.”
Lovren told the club’s website: “It’s a dream come true.
“I’m happy and glad to be here. I’m proud and can’t wait to start. I know we have millions and millions of supporters - Liverpool is more than a club.
“After I played at Anfield last season, I said to myself: ‘One day I hope I’ll be able to play here for Liverpool’. The fans will know from the first minute that I’m a player that will give 100 per cent on the pitch.”
Lovren, who joined Southampton from Lyon for £8.5m last summer, leaves St Mary’s 12 months into a four-year contract.
Fiorentina
Fiorentina have agreed to sign defender Jose Basanta, who was part of the Argentina squad that reached the World Cup final, from Mexican club Monterrey, the Italian club said on Sunday.
The deal is subject to a medical and contract terms for the 30-year-old Basanta, the Serie A side said on their website.
Basanta, who spent six years at Monterrey, began his career at Estudiantes in Argentina. He is a central defender who filled in at left back for the suspended Marcos Rojo in Argentina’s quarter-final win over Belgium.
He helped Monterrey to win league titles in 2009 and 2010 and a hat-trick of Concacaf Champions League crowns between 2011 and 2013.
Meanwhile, Honduras World Cup striker Jerry Bengtson has joined Argentine first division side Belgrano on loan from MLS side New England Revolution, the club from the city of Cordoba said.
“New England have agreed on the loan of player Jerry Bengtson to Belgrano until June 30, 2015,” the Argentine club said on their Twitter account.
The 27-year-old, who scored nine goals in the World Cup qualifiers though none at the finals, scored four goals in 36 matches for New England since he joined them in 2012.
Mexico
Former Mexico striker Cuauhtemoc Blanco has returned to the top flight at the age of 41, as champions Leon crashed to their second defeat of the new season and Guadalajara have begun another bid to rise back to the top of Mexican soccer.
Blanco, capped 120 times, came on as a substitute for Puebla after an hour of their 0-0 draw at home to Veracruz on Saturday having last appeared in the Mexican first division for Santos Laguna in 2008 and spending recent seasons in the second tier.
“I’m happy and grateful to the Puebla fans and team owners who gave me this chance to come here ... I lacked a goal to take the three points,” Blanco told reporters.
Puebla next face America, the club where Blanco is an idol after playing there for 15 years and helping them win the league title in 2005 and the Concacaf Champions League in 2006.
Former Barcelona youth coach Albert Benaiges was named on Saturday as head of youth development at Chivas Guadalajara, Mexico’s most popular and decorated team.
The Mexican-born Benaiges spent 20 years at Barca and worked with the likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta before leaving in 2011.
“Albert Benaiges comes to Chivas with the background and prestige of more than 25 years as a youth development coach and (after playing a) fundamental part in preparing international figures like Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique and Lionel Messi, among others,” the club said in a statement according to El Universal’s sports website.
Guadalajara, whose efforts to rebuild with the help of Dutch great Johan Cryuff’s consultancy in 2012 failed, last won the league title in 2006 and saw arch rivals America catch up with them with a record-equalling 11th crown in the 2012/13 season.
Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Generational responses to the pandemic
Devesh Mamtani from Century Financial believes the cash-hoarding tendency of each generation is influenced by what stage of the employment cycle they are in. He offers the following insights:
Baby boomers (those born before 1964): Owing to market uncertainty and the need to survive amid competition, many in this generation are looking for options to hoard more cash and increase their overall savings/investments towards risk-free assets.
Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980): Gen X is currently in its prime working years. With their personal and family finances taking a hit, Generation X is looking at multiple options, including taking out short-term loan facilities with competitive interest rates instead of dipping into their savings account.
Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996): This market situation is giving them a valuable lesson about investing early. Many millennials who had previously not saved or invested are looking to start doing so now.
As You Were
Liam Gallagher
(Warner Bros)
The biog
Name: Timothy Husband
Nationality: New Zealand
Education: Degree in zoology at The University of Sydney
Favourite book: Lemurs of Madagascar by Russell A Mittermeier
Favourite music: Billy Joel
Weekends and holidays: Talking about animals or visiting his farm in Australia
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
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.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Mamo Year it started: 2019 Founders: Imad Gharazeddine, Asim Janjua Based: Dubai, UAE Number of employees: 28 Sector: Financial services Investment: $9.5m Funding stage: Pre-Series A Investors: Global Ventures, GFC, 4DX Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and prominent Silicon Valley investors. Killing of Qassem Suleimani
FA CUP FINAL
Manchester City 6
(D Silva 26', Sterling 38', 81', 87', De Bruyne 61', Jesus 68')
Watford 0
Man of the match: Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
