London summit aims to revitalise city’s status as a hub for family offices
City of London’s Lord Mayor to host 100 family office executives in a bid to attract private capital and spur growth
London’s reputation as a global wealth hub has taken a hit this year after UK tax changes prompted a string of high-profile departures among its super-rich residents.
One of the highest-profile figures in the English capital’s financial district is seeking to change that narrative.
Alastair King, the City of London’s Lord Mayor, is working to shore up the English capital’s role as a stronghold for family offices overseeing the fortunes of the world’s rich. About 100 representatives from the secretive firms are set to hear his pitch for attracting private capital and boosting growth in London at a Thursday summit hosted at Mansion House, the 18th century Palladian pile that serves as the ceremonial heart of the City.
The meeting “chimes with this idea of what I’m trying to do in relation to bringing a little bit more calculated risk back”, King, 56, said of London’s financial sector in an interview. “And the great thing about family offices is they can take some calculated risk.”
At least a fifth of the world’s 500 richest people now have a family office, helping to preserve fortunes totalling more than US$4 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Those with London firms managing their wealth include steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, UK entrepreneur James Dyson and Greek shipping heiress Maria Angelicoussis, who has parlayed her wealth into stocks and private equity through the firm managing her fortune, Nicrone.
The firms represent a small but influential part of Britain’s private wealth sector and are showing some immunity to the turmoil stemming from the end of a preferential tax regime for wealthy residents hailing from abroad, known as non-domiciled individuals.