It has been published Friday, Mar 27, 2026 ยท 07:27 PM
[HONG KONG] Anmol Goel, head of the family’s London office, said his firm plans to open a shop in the United Arab Emirates this year to connect with the money managers who have flocked to the Gulf. Then the battle began.
“We were setting up a new company, acquiring bank assets, and buying assets. Everything was done,” said Goel, the chief executive of GACS, who was present at a financial conference in Hong Kong this week. “It’s too early to jump to conclusions, but this is what brought me to Hong Kong.”
The war in the Middle East gives many wealthy people another reason to think about Hong Kong, where authorities are trying to regain influence that was lost in recent years amid protests, political restrictions and pandemic restrictions. They are promoting lower corporate taxes, a wider talent pool and a booming stock market to bring back the rich.
A number of events in Hong Kong this week show the Asian financial center is also holding back, especially as investors seek alternatives to Dubai and Abu Dhabi during a war that shows signs of weakening. Singapore also stands to benefit if more money flees the Middle East. However, many families are still waiting to see how it will handle their jobs.
“We are looking at Zurich, Singapore and Mumbai as depositories,” Goel said after attending the Wealth for Good conference. “People say these places are boring, but boring is the new fun.”
XinXi Asset Management, a newly established firm focused on family offices, is helping at least seven clients move more than US$100 million in combined assets from Dubai to Hong Kong, according to chief executive Joel Tan. Tan also received six inquiries from Chinese buyers looking to sell their Middle East properties this week alone. Meanwhile, the firm has shelved its plans to open a branch in Dubai even though it has already started paperwork due to the war.
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Hong Kong’s transformation is reflected in the wave of new family offices, which rose 25 percent to 3,384 at the end of last year from 2023. Each of them manages at least 10 million dollars, according to a Deloitte study commissioned by the local government.
Officials plan to increase tax concessions for family offices and funds to many asset classes, Christopher Hui, secretary of financial services and treasury said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Tuesday. The government has seen an increasing number of visitors from the Middle East for the annual wealth gathering, Hui said.
The boom in public offerings that made the city the busiest city in the world last year has also brought in more money for investment banks. Locally raised funds hit a four-year high in 2025, and started this year with a bang.
Wall Street firms and regional partners such as UBS Group, Citigroup, DBS Group Holdings and China Construction Bank Corp. are all adding to Hong Kong’s high profile this year, as they compete in the US$1 trillion private equity market.
Hong Kong Finance Secretary Paul Chan said at the Bloomberg Family Office Conference on Wednesday: “Reputation, trust and market confidence are fundamental to everything.”
A billionaire visiting the city for a government meeting said Hong Kong had managed to regain confidence lost during the Covid years, when China’s strong influence was seen to be hurting the financial industry.
The Dubai raids are likely to benefit Hong Kong and Singapore, although it is difficult to attract high-quality Europeans given the long distance, said the person, who asked not to be named for political reasons.
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Gildo Zegna, the billionaire chairman of the Italian fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna, arrived in Hong Kong this week with a long list of things to do: dine with clients, meet investors, visit stores and attend Art Basel – all in three days.
The first thing he noticed was the traffic, followed by the renewed energy inside his shop and the row next to the luxury center.
“I haven’t seen these things in Hong Kong for a while,” Zegna, who has a stake with family members in a fashion firm worth about $1.6 billion, said in an interview at his shop in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Some fund managers for the wealthy in Hong Kong say their clients are cautious, but they are avoiding large assets so far.
“We haven’t seen any real changes in the families we work with in terms of their appetite or risk tolerance,” said Elton Cheung, managing partner of VMS Group.
Singapore is also able to see inflows from the Middle East, although some wealthy people are reluctant to move there because there are many restrictions, according to the regional bank’s chief economist.
The ban on hookahs and vapes, as well as strict laws against speeding, are a major deterrent, especially for wealthy people with luxury sports cars, the person said. Malaysia has become attractive to many families for cultural and religious reasons. Some prefer to be shipped in Singapore but live across the road in Johor, or busy Kuala Lumpur.
Widening tensions could lead investors to seek more liquid options, making hedge funds a “good place” to look, VMS’s Cheung said during a panel at a Bloomberg event on Wednesday.
“According to my experience, I have had many discussions with clients about whether we should invest in China or visit China, prepare ground visits,” said Aaron Costello, head of Asia based in Singapore at Cambridge Associates who is responsible for the firm’s investment and research in the region, during a symposium held by the Milken Institute in Hong Kong on Monday. There has been a thaw, mostly from Europeans, and the Americans are slowly warming. BLOOMBERG
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