'HK Family Office Push Should Target Mainland Wealth'

The director of a University of Science and Technology centre for family wealth believes the government should target the mainland's wealthy elite in its push to attract family offices to Hong Kong.

Family offices control billions of dollars in investments on behalf of wealthy families around the world and the government has set aside HK$100 million to attract such funds to Hong Kong.

Professor Winnie Peng, who is director of HKUST's Roger King Centre for Asian Family Business and Family Office, told an RTHK programme it was inevitable that mainland families would be the primary source of new funds, although other regions should also be targeted.

"Given our geographical location, I think it's undoubtable we should target wealthy families from mainland China first," she said. "This will be our largest market and we need to be very practical on that.

"However, there are other places near us that we can also approach, due to their high inheritance taxes – for example Japan and South Korea. I believe these places see a strong need to set up family offices outside of their own countries. As Hong Kong is an international city I believe we can also attract family offices from Europe and North America, as long as they have an interest in investing in Asia, especially in China."

Peng added that for the government's initiative to be a success, a push to train more talent in Hong Kong would be necessary.

"Hong Kong actually has a good mix of old wealth and new wealth, and there are different needs in terms of talents between the two groups," she said. "We have to understand the different needs of those two groups and provide more tailor-made training for families, professionals and even government employees."