Five family office execs start Hong Kong association
[ Citywire Asia ] Five family office executives have banded together to launch an association in Hong Kong.
Family Office Association Hong Kong (FOAHK), which was launched Wednesday, claims to be the first independent body of its kind.
The association is led by chairman Chi Man Kwan and vice chairmen Kenneth Ho and Grant Ko. Jim Kwok and Harry Pang are committee members.
Hong Kong has the highest density of ultra-high-net-worth individuals by far – at 1,364 to one million adults, Raffles Family Office founder and CEO Kwan noted.
The city has a population of 7.5 million, according to official estimates.
‘The growing need for family office support around the management of financial affairs presents promising growth opportunities for family office operators.
‘Against this background, FOAHK is founded with the vision to be the voice of family offices in Hong Kong,’ he said.
Kwan sees the association driving dialogue between the industry and the government, regulators and other stakeholders.
It will also provide guidance on best practices and host courses, seminars and events. More details will be provided in 2021’s first quarter.
There are no official statistics for single family offices in Hong Kong, although their numbers have grown exponentially.
But the city has issued around 1,500 Type Nine licences, that is required for asset management. Some 50 of them belong to multi-family offices, Kwan estimates.
‘One of the aims for us is to gather these single family offices and multi-family offices together,’ he said.
Hong Kong’s concentration of UHNWIs is especially impressive in a regional context. There are only 4,500 UHNWIs in all of Southeast Asia, Ho told Citywire Asia.
‘Of course, the growth rate in China is tremendous and much bigger than the rest of Asia. With the new Asia trade pact, we expect numbers to grow even more.
‘We also feel very strongly about Greater Bay Area initiatives, that are a huge driver of the wealth management industry. These are impetuses for us to band together,’ he shared.
Ho is the managing partner of Carret Private, that merged with Singapore-based Lumen Capital Investors last September.