Carlos Tevez has left doubts hanging over his future at Juventus despite coach Massimiliano Allegri’s belief the Argentine star will honour his contract with the Turin club.
Tevez scored his 18th Serie A goal this season with the opener in Juve’s 2-0 home win over Lazio on Saturday, which took their top-of-the-table lead to 15 points with seven games left.
But a celebratory “chicken dance” – which he first performed playing for Argentine giants Boca Juniors against bitter rivals River Plate in 2004 – as well as comments by Boca president Daniel Angelici this week claiming Tevez wanted to return to the club next season, have left fans wondering.
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Angelici set the rumour mill spinning when he claimed Tevez would quit Juventus a year before his contract expires, in June 2016, to return to Boca, where he was a youth player.
He was quoted by Gazzetta dello Sport as saying that Tevez’s “idea is to return, after so many years away, wear our shirt and play for two or three years”.
“He wants it and his family want it,” Angelici said. “In the space of a year and a half, a lot of things can change. But right now, that’s his idea.”
Tevez said: “There’s a lot of talk about me right now, but all I want to focus on is Juve. We are in great form and it’s not the right time to discuss my future. When I make a decision about my future, the fans will be the first to know.
“I’ve already said I want to retire wearing a Boca shirt, it’s my dream as well as my family’s.”
But a return to Argentina at this stage would be surprising for a player who, at age 31, “still has plenty to offer to European football”, according to Allegri.
Since joining the club in time for the 2013/14 season, Tevez revived his career having endured a turbulent end to his three-year spell at Manchester City.
While piling up the goals for Juve, Tevez has earned a recall to the Argentina squad. He has also been instrumental as Juventus bid to reach the semi-finals of the Uefa Champions League for the first time in more than a decade.
On Wednesday, Juventus can book a semi-final place if they draw away to Monaco in the second leg of their quarter-final.
Juventus have been keen to keep a lid on any transfer talk concerning Tevez, who has scored 26 goals in all competitions this season.
Tevez claimed his celebratory chicken dance on Saturday was a “promise to friends” but it did little to quell rumours of his return to Boca. “I’ll do the same if I score at Monaco,” he said.
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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.”
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.
