Middle East, India family offices are now eyeing city

Family offices from the Middle East and India have showed interest in coming to Hong Kong in the past six months, said Jessica Cutrera, chairman of the Family Office Association Hong Kong.

Speaking at the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association’s annual conference, Cutrera said family offices seek to diversify their investments by participating in large real estate projects and initial public offerings while also looking for partners to collaborate with.

Hong Kong has seen a 24 percent growth in family offices, hedge fund managers and private equity fund managers over the past three years, surpassing Singapore, with 2,700 single-family offices currently operating in the city, Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun said in his keynote speech at the event.

Wong said that Hong Kong continues to see capital inflows, with bank deposits reaching HK$16.6 trillion in the first four months of this year, an increase of over 2 percent compared to last year.

The Securities and Futures Commission said local funds saw inflows of 8.2 billion yuan (HK$8.8 billion) in the first four months, higher than last year’s inflows of 5.9 billion yuan and pre-pandemic inflows of 7.2 billion yuan in 2019, due to the optimization of the mutual recognition of funds between the mainland and Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority said that authorities will explore upgrading the Wealth Management Connect to attract uninvested cash held by mainland households and bring new opportunities to the industry.