Technology
Hong Kong’s Family Office Ambitions Attract Bloomberg
Seeking to push itself forward as a centre for family offices, competing with places such as the UAE and Singapore, Hong Kong authorities have partnered with the US media and information services group.
Hong Kong is pushing ahead with its plan to attract family
offices, inking a partnership with US-headquartered media and
business information group Bloomberg on a joint initiative.
Bloomberg and the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau
of Hong Kong’s government have announced the Hong Kong
Family Office Nexus. This is a “a joint initiative to further
develop the city’s family office sector by providing prospective
and existing family offices with access to new resources to
support their growth,” according to the wording of a joint press
release yesterday.
The US firm will work with the FSTB, Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK)
and the Hong Kong Academy for Wealth Legacy (HKAWL) to deliver a
series of projects and resources to Hong Kong’s family office
sector.
Hong Kong competes as a family office sector with hubs such as
Singapore and Dubai; already a number of such
organisations have
set up in the Asian city. Bloomberg appears to view this
drive as an opportunity for building new lines of business.
The projects undertaken as part of this initiative will include
community building, knowledge sharing, technology
support, and philanthropic collaboration.
“Family offices play an important and growing role in global
financial markets. We are proud to partner with the Hong Kong
government to launch Hong Kong Family Office Nexus, building on
their longstanding work supporting the family office community in
this city,” Bing Li, head of APAC at Bloomberg, said. “This is a
unique point in time for family offices as they gain access to
new technologies and more data, and we are excited to help them
as they grow.”
The organisations said they will build a digital knowledge hub
for Hong Kong’s current and aspiring family offices and service
providers. In March 2025, Bloomberg will be holding a
“signature event” dedicated to the family office community to
coincide with the Wealth for Good in Hong Kong Summit.
Other developments include creating a Hong Kong “family office
playbook” to assist family offices to gain a better
understanding of current market trends, regulatory
considerations, technology options and day-to-day operations. It
will provide access to Bloomberg’s suite of family office
solutions, including Bloomberg Terminal trials, a range of
financial and alternative data, and opportunities to learn from
Bloomberg’s experts.
The joint initiative was forged following a meeting in New York
between Christopher Hui, secretary for FSTB, and Michael
Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg
Philanthropies.
In June 2023, Hong Kong's government unveiled
its “Network of Family Office Service Providers.” The rollout of
the network is one of eight initiatives in the government's
Policy Statement on Developing Family Office Businesses in Hong
Kong. In late 2021, Hong Kong introduced a bill providing
tax concessions for investments managed by eligible single-family
offices, with retrospective effect from 1 April 2022. Called the
Inland Revenue (Amendment) (Tax concessions for family-owned
investment holding vehicles) Bill 2022, it exempted family-owned
investment holding vehicles and their portfolios of special
purpose entities from tax on transactions carried out by a Hong
Kong-based family office.