More than 100 of the world's wealthiest business owners gathered in Hong Kong this weekend, as the city stepped up its appeal to be the Asia-Pacific region's wealth management and family office hub.
Business owners from the US, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and mainland China joined their Hong Kong counterparts at the principals-only 2024 Family Business Summit, organised by South China Morning Post and Blue Pool Capital with JPMorgan as the presenting partner.
"Family businesses form the backbone of Asia's economy, and are a major growth driver for this region," said the Post's CEO Catherine So at the Island Shangri-La Hotel.
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"As a global news organisation reaching an affluent audience of 35 million monthly ... we feel it is incumbent upon us to provide an exclusive forum for prominent family business owners to engage and exchange insights with one another to ensure the sustainable success of these multigenerational empires."
The one-and-a-half day, closed-door meeting kicked off on Friday with a dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel, where guests were treated to a seven-course menu prepared by the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Lung King Heen.
JPMorgan Chase's Asia-Pacific CEO Sjoerd Leenart (left) in a fireside chat with Howard Marks (right), the co-founder and co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management during the pre-summit dinner of the 2024 Family Office Summit in Hong Kong on November 15, 2024. Photo: SCMP alt=JPMorgan Chase's Asia-Pacific CEO Sjoerd Leenart (left) in a fireside chat with Howard Marks (right), the co-founder and co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management during the pre-summit dinner of the 2024 Family Office Summit in Hong Kong on November 15, 2024. Photo: SCMP>
The first day of the conference was packed with discussion panels featuring some of the top experts in various fields, from artificial intelligence to the South China Sea.
Former US ambassador to China Max Baucus commenced the programme with a discussion about geopolitics with the Shanghai Institute for International Studies' Chairman Yang Jiemian and Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on US-China Relations.
Donald Trump's second term in the White House may unleash a "Trump-tsunami" of policies, Baucus said. These are Trump's campaign promises to deport illegal immigrants, slap tariffs on China, remake the US government and make recess appointments.
Tariffs will almost certainly spill over to American consumers and cause US inflation to accelerate, said two top economic advisers to the Chinese government.
Still, disruptions to the status quo provide opportunities for long-term investors who deploy patient capital, similar to family businesses and legacy wealth, conference attendees said.
"We prioritise opportunities that build our value creation track record in healthcare, financial services, consumer sectors, clean energy, technology and emerging industries," said Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, CEO of Mubadala Investment Company.
"Mubadala's strategy focuses on priority sectors essential to [the UAE's] pivot to a knowledge and innovation-led economy," he said, adding that the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been one of the most active foreign investors in China. "In Abu Dhabi, we see disruption as an opportunity to push boundaries, reinforcing the UAE's role as a global home for transformative industries."
The Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific were the subjects of attention in a panel comprising the renowned South China Sea expert Wu Shicun, the Eurasia Group's managing director Rick Waters, and Tsinghua University's senior fellow Senior Colonel Zhou Bo.
The potential for all-out war is low in the Taiwan Strait, although low-level conflagrations and altercations may occur around the South China Sea, experts said.
Hong Kong's Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po spoke about Hong Kong's competitiveness as a financial centre during a fireside chat with the Post's editor-in-chief Tammy Tam.
Hong Kong's pledge to entice family offices to set up operations in the city has seen growing interest . The number of Asia-Pacific single-family offices is expected to surge by 40 per cent to 3,200 by 2030, outpacing all regions globally, according to a report by Deloitte published last week. Hong Kong alone is home to more than 2,700 single-family offices, with more than half of them founded by individuals whose wealth exceeds US$50 million.
Christopher Hui Ching-you, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, delivered welcome remarks during lunch. Bob Prince, the co-chief investment officer of the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, and JPMorgan Chase's president Daniel Pinto spoke in a fireside chat over lunch, moderated by EQT Asia's chairperson Jean Eric Salata.
Bridgewater's billionaire founder Ray Dalio said he remained " committed " to investing in China in September, just days before a 32 per cent surge in the world's second-largest stock market.
The afternoon session kicked off with a discussion about AI featuring Alibaba Cloud's chief technology officer Zhou Jingren.
AI may balloon into a US$1.4 trillion industry by 2030, according to an estimate by China International Capital Corporation. On this, Hong Kong has a strong role to play, with five of the city's six universities ranked among the world's top 50 institutions for data science and AI, led by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in the global 10th position.
More than 237,000 companies related to AI launched in China in the first half of this year, according to a search on corporate data platform Qichacha. The country has around 1.7 million companies registered with AI in their name, patent portfolio or scope of business.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) , the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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