Hong Kong takes step towards becoming Asia’s hub for wealthy families to protect their fortunes

Hong Kong faces stiff competition from Singapore in its efforts to become the regional centre for family offices

InvestHK, a government agency, has set up a new team to help boost the city’s chances

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Dixon Wong, who will head the new team, and Stephen Phillips, director-general of investment promotion at InvestHK. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 5:30pm, 29 Jun 2021Updated: 10:50pm, 29 Jun 2021

Invest Hong Kong, a government agency that promotes the city as an international financial centre, has launched a family office team in a bid to attract wealthy families to come here to invest their fortunes and manage their succession planning.

It marks the government’s latest effort to push Hong Kong ahead of Singapore in what bankers say is a a battle between the two to become Asia’s hub for family offices – corporate entities that ultra-wealthy families use to structure their investments and preserve their riches.

“Hong Kong can win due to its stock market and its proximity with mainland China,”said Stephen Phillips, director-general of investment promotion at InvestHK, at a briefing on Tuesday.

“The family offices want to diversify their investment. Hong Kong has an active stock market which is much bigger than Singapore’s. Hong Kong is also one of the largest market in the world in wine and arts trading. These provide a lot of alternative investment opportunities for family offices.”

The FamilyOfficeHK team of eight people will have its own office in Admiralty, close to Central where it houses a cluster of family offices. It will aim to link up the family offices with thousands of bankers and professionals in the city to help them open bank accounts and set up offices here.

In September, InvestHK introduced an information portal for family offices, while the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued guidance on the licensing regime to prospective family offices that may set up in Hong Kong.

Mario Ho Yau-kwan, the youngest son of the late Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun, recently set up a family office platform to help wealthy families tap opportunities in the fast-growing Greater Bay Area.