Cambridge Associates, wealth manager for the Rothschild family, applies to open Hong Kong office

Expansion of Cambridge Associates in Hong Kong, its fourth office in Asia-Pacific after Singapore and Beijing, will allow it to capture opportunities in Greater Bay Area, executive says
InvestHK has formed a family office team to attract companies to set up in Hong Kong to help manage the fortunes of wealthy families

Banking & finance

Enoch Yiu

Published: 12:07pm, 29 Aug 2021

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Cambridge Associates, a US investment firm with more than US$38 billion of assets under management, has applied for multiple licences to conduct business in Hong Kong with an eye on wealthy clients in the Greater Bay Area, according to a senior executive.

The firm is seeking to add the financial hub to its offices in the region in Beijing, Singapore and Sydney to better serve its clients, joining top-tier lenders in the city in the push into the wealth management industry as China minted new billionaires faster than anywhere else on Earth.

“The expansion of our footprint to Hong Kong will allow us to capture the growing opportunities in the development of the Greater Bay Area,” Mary Pang, head of global private client practice at Cambridge, said in a phone interview with the Post.

“While travel restrictions remain in Hong Kong, it does not affect our expansion plan in the city, as we are taking a very long-term view to develop in the city,” said Pang, who relocated to Singapore from San Francisco earlier this year.

Mary Pang, head of global private client practice at Cambridge Associates. Photo: Handout

The timing of the office opening has not been fixed as Cambridge is awaiting approval from the regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission, Pang said. The firm announced in March the hiring of Edwina Ho as senior director of business development for Asia, based in Hong Kong.

Cambridge Associates, which is based in Boston, Massachusetts and counts the Rothschild family among its clients, is the latest in a slew of wealth management companies and family offices setting up in Hong Kong after the government launched a marketing offensive.

InvestHK, which aims to attract foreign direct investment into Hong Kong and strengthen the city’s status as an leading international business hub, in June established a family office team to attract money managers in wealth and succession planning.

The same month, Mario Ho Yau-kwan, son of late casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun, set up a family-office platform to help wealthy families tap opportunities in the fast-growing bay area.

Pang said InvestHK guided Cambridge Associates to set up here.

05:25

Hong Kong's competitive edge questioned as Xi says Shenzhen is engine of China’s Greater Bay Area

The city’s three note-issuing banks HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China (Hong Kong) are ploughing billions of dollars to expand their wealth management teams in the region.

China is minting millionaires at a rapid rate, mostly on the back of the country’s tech firms tapping the capital market while enriching their founders immensely. There were 196 US dollar-denominated billionaires in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen last year, according to the Hurun Research Institute.

Cambridge Associates, co-founded by Harvard College roommates Hunter Lewis and James Bailey in 1973, first started providing research and advisory services for institutional investors. It later moved into managing investments for educational endowments and pension funds.

“Hong Kong is one of the largest capital markets worldwide, as well as an easy location for our international clients to travel to,” said Pang, who will oversee the Hong Kong team. “Hong Kong continues to be a deep source of financial services talent that can help our global clients to invest in the region.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: US investment firm targets rich clients in Greater Bay Area

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