Hong Kong-based wealth manager Capital Company has teamed up with US firms Leo Group and BFT Financial Group.
Newly merged company Leo Wealth will manage $4.3bn (£3.1bn, €3.65bn) of assets and has offices in Hong Kong, New York, New Jersey and Texas.
Former Leo Group boss Matthew Allain will be chief executive, while founding partners of The Capital Company, Jessica Cutrera and Harman Overdijk, are president and chief investment officer, respectively.
The soon to be implemented Wealth Management Connect is probably the biggest opportunity for Hong Kong market and the merger will give the company an edge to serve the wealthy individuals in China, Aleksey Mironenko, global head of investment solutions at Leo Wealth, told our sister publication Fund Selector Asia
“We are [well] positioned [for Wealth Management Connect] because a lot of those people are very likely to have a son who is studying in the UK or a grandchild who’s in the US. Those are complex things to figure out, and traditionally advisers in mainland China have never had to deal with them,” Mironenko said.
The company plans to add more client- service people in Hong Kong office once it understands better the needs from its potential clients in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), he added. The GBA comprises the Hong Kong and Macau, and nine cities in Guangdong Province in mainland China.
Mironenko admitted that the company has had to spend a lot of time explaining to people that Hong Kong has “not changed and that it is perfectly fine to keep assets in the city”.
“We have clients who have moved some money to other places. But, from our point of view, Hong Kong still offers one of only two places in Asia where you can invest globally and efficiently; Singapore is the other one.”
The company has clients throughout the region — not just from China – who have asked for help to invest globally through Hong Kong, which remains the regional centre for wealth management and will be the hub for wealth services in the GBA, according to Mironenko.
Global citizens
Leo Wealth, like The Capital Company, provides wealth services not only for “regular individuals” in Hong Kong, but also people who they call “global citizens” or “cross border individuals” – which means that it has to deal with multi-jurisdictional tax regulatory issues, he explained.
The increasingly global flow of wealth and the complex investment and legal landscape have generated new demand and give rise to a new generation of global citizens and internationally- minded investors, according to a statement by Leo Wealth.
The pandemic and other geopolitical risks have also created new challenges for global citizens looking for wealth creation and protection across international borders, it added.
The geographic coverage that follows the merger will allow the firm to serve clients in major investment markets from Asia Pacific to North America and beyond with global investment strategies and the ability to capture thematic investment opportunities, according to the firm.
Leo Wealth is licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong and by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States.
“Our combined entity brings international wealth solutions which integrate portfolio and asset management with international tax and estate planning all under one roof,” Overdijk added.
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