Geneva-based Forth Capital’s surprise decision in October to exit Dubai is part of a new business plan for the specialist expat financial advisory firm that promises expansion in Europe, Asia and North America, according to founder and chief executive Tom Tracy.
Tracy says Forth is reworking its business strategy to focus on its most profitable markets and explore new ones in the coming year as he outlines the firm’s model without a Dubai office.
“We can do business all over Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) out of our Geneva and Dublin-regulated offices,” he says. “Hong Kong has more than exceeded expectations and we are doing significant levels of new business in North America, in particular Canada.”
Banking boon
Forth has record levels of assets under management, he says, nearly 1,000 clients worldwide and new global portfolio strategies, made up of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), that have garnered about £70m in new investment since their launch in February.
“We had three major issues: volatility in the oil price that was exacerbated by the recent drops in sterling; a real difficulty in finding high-quality people in the UAE who were experienced in UK financial services; and the high cost of regulation in the DIFC."
“We expect these strategies will result in more than £100m ($124.5m, €116.2m) of new monies in less than a year,” he says.
Forth intends to continue to focus on British expats and professionals with £500,000 and above in assets, who Tracy describes as the firm’s target market.
He says Forth has benefited as private banks have struggled to properly service their clients in the face of tightening margins and increased capital reserve requirements. “This is a boon to us. We are being referred lots of new clients with between £500,000 and £5m in assets.
“We work hard on business development. It is about creating quality activity for our highly trained financial advisers and that is not always easy.
“It is one thing having what we believe to be the industry’s best advisers. If we can marry that with clients dealing directly with us, then we can do significant amounts of business with a relatively small, high-quality advisory team.
“It then comes down to the excellence of our offering and our client relationships. We have taken on external consultants who are helping us cement our relationships and we are segmenting our clients, specifying the services we offer and giving what we believe to be the best customer service experience in cross-border financial services.”
Tracy has more than 25 years’ experience in private client financial services, with stints at Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of America and Standard Life. His company currently has 10 advisers and aims to expand to 14 by the year end.
Exiting the UAE is a big step for Forth. The firm was launched in Dubai in 2004, but shortly afterwards moved to Geneva. One decade on, the firm tried again to establish operations at Jumeirah Lakes Towers. These operations then moved to the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), but it was not until April 2015 that the firm was licensed to operate there.
