Family Office
BNP Paribas Sees European Clients Building Hong Kong-Based Family Offices – Report
Hong Kong has sought to encourage family offices to set up in the city.
BNP Paribas says
that an increasing number of European clients want to set up
family offices in Hong Kong and exploit the region’s
opportunities.
A growing number of wealthy mainland clients were also
considering investing in Europe, Lemuel Lee, head of wealth
management for BNP Paribas in Hong Kong, told the South China
Morning Post.
“The two-way capital flow between Europe and mainland China is
expected to continue in the coming years, while Hong Kong is
playing an important role as a connector in the process,” Lee was
quoted as saying by the news organisation. “For these European
investors who want to invest in technology startups or other
businesses in Asia and mainland China, Hong Kong is the best
location for them to set up family offices to do due diligence or
negotiate deals,” Lee added.
Hong Kong – now ranked by Boston Consulting Group as being the
world’s largest cross-border financial hub, edging
ahead of Switzerland – has developed tax and other incentives to
encourage family offices, competing with rival centres such as
Singapore. (See a related article here.)
Lee talked to WealthBriefingAsia last autumn about how BNP Paribas addresses the global linkages for its HNW and UHNW clients, using the term "corridor" to describe what is happening.
As the report noted, in June, Jason Fong, the global head of
family office at InvestHK – the government body responsible for
foreign investment promotion – said the agency was assisting 30
European family offices planning to set up or invest in Hong
Kong.
Hong Kong's tax concession regime for family offices, which came
into operation on 19 May 2023, is one of the policy measures
which provides tax incentives intended to attract high net worth
private families to set up family offices in Hong Kong and
operate family-owned investment holding vehicles from Hong Kong.
The Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (CIES), which was reintroduced in 2024, requires a minimum investment of $5 million to qualify for residency. Another scheme is the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (QMAS). This requires a tax receipt of $320,000 from China for residency eligibility.