World | West Asia War Pushes Super Rich to Reconsider Hong Kong
Anmol Goel, the head of a London-based family office, said his firm was planning to open an outlet in the United Arab Emirates this year to join money managers that have flocked to the Gulf. Then the war began. “We were setting up a new holding company, acquiring banking assets, and purchasing properties. Everything was finalized,” said Goel, the chief executive officer of GACS Ltd., who attended a wealth forum in Hong Kong this week. “It’s still too early to jump to conclusions, but this is what brought me to Hong Kong.” War in the West Asia is giving the super rich one more reason to reconsider Hong Kong, where authorities are trying to reclaim the allure that was lost in recent years amid protests, political controls and pandemic restrictions. They’ve been pitching the financial hub’s low taxes, wide talent pool and a booming equities capital market to bring the wealthy back. A slew of events in Hong Kong this week show the Asian financial hub is regaining traction, especially as investors look for alternatives to Dubai and Abu Dhabi amid a war that’s showing few signs of easing. Singapore is also set to benefit if more money flees the Middle East. Still, many families are taking a wait and see approach to their portfolios. “We are evaluating Zurich, Singapore, and Mumbai as backup entities,” Goel said after attending the Wealth for Good summit. “People say these places are boring, but boring is the new sexy.” XinXi Asset Management, a newly established firm focusing on family offices, is helping at least seven clients move more than $100 million in combined assets from Dubai to Hong Kong, according to Chief Executive Officer Joel Tan. Tan also received six inquiries from Chinese clients seeking to sell their Middle Eastern properties this week alone. Meanwhile, the firm has scrapped its plans to open a Dubai branch despite having started the licensing paperwork due to the war. Hong Kong’s rebound is reflected in the wave of new family offices, which rose 25% to 3,384 at the end of last year from 2023. Each of them manage at least $10 million, according to a Deloitte survey commissioned by the local government. Authorities plan to extend tax concessions for family offices and funds to more asset classes, Christopher Hui, secretary for financial services and the treasury said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Tuesday. The government has seen an increased number of guests from the Middle East for the annual wealth summit, Hui said. A boom in initial public offerings that made the city the busiest venue for listings in the world last year is also bringing in bumper revenue for investment banks. Proceeds raised locally hit a four-year high in 2025, and have started this year with a bang. Wall Street firms and regional counterparts such as UBS Group AG, Citigroup Inc., DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and China Construction Bank Corp. are all adding headcount in Hong Kong this year, as they compete for the city’s $1 trillion private wealth market. “Reputation, trust, and confidence of the market is central to everything,” Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan said at the Bloomberg Family Office Summit on Wednesday. A billionaire who visited the city for the government summit said Hong Kong has been able to regain some trust that was lost during Covid years, when China’s strong influence was seen as hurting the financial industry. The attacks on Dubai will likely benefit Hong Kong and Singapore, though it’s harder for either to attract European ultra-high-net worth individuals given the long distance, the person said, asking not to be named due to sensitivity of speaking about politics. Renewed Energy Gildo Zegna, the billionaire executive chairman of Italian fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna, arrived in Hong Kong this week with a long to-do list: dining with clients, meeting investors, visiting shops and attending Art Basel — all within three days. The first thing he noticed was the traffic, followed by renewed energy inside his store and a line-up at a nearby luxury outlet. “I hadn’t seen these things in Hong Kong for a while,” Zegna, who has a stake with family members in the fashion firm worth about $1.6 billion, said in an interview at his shop in Tsim Sha Tsui. Other money managers for the rich in Hong Kong said their clients are watchful, but steering clear of big asset moves so far. “We haven’t seen actual shifts in the families that we work with in terms of their appetite or the risk tolerances,” said Elton Cheung, the managing partner at VMS Group. Singapore could also see more inflows of money from the Middle East, though some of the super rich are reluctant to move there because it’s too restrictive, according to a wealth executive for a regional bank. A ban on hookahs and vape, as well as strict enforcements against speeding constitute a major deterrence, especially for the uber-rich with fancy sports cars, said the person. Malaysia has become more attractive for many families for cultural reasons and religious closeness. Some are choosing to have assets booked in Singapore but live across the causeway in Johor, or bustling Kuala Lumpur. The extension of the conflict could lead to investors seeking more liquid options, making hedge funds “a good space” for them to look at, VMS’s Cheung said during a panel at the Bloomberg event on Wednesday. “From my own experience, I’ve had more conversations with clients about whether we should invest in China or should we come visit China, arranging trips to get on the ground,” said Aaron Costello, the Singapore-based head of Asia at Cambridge Associates who is responsible for the firm’s investment and research in the region, during a symposium hosted by the Milken Institute in Hong Kong on Monday. “There’s been a thaw, particularly from Europeans, and the Americans are slowly warming up.”
