Dubai family office hiring in Singapore

Feb 5, 2014

Single-family office Falcon Investment Advisors is building its capabilities in the Lion City as it looks to bring in external family money for the first time.

Falcon Investment Advisors, a single-family office headquartered in Dubai, is adding staff in its Singapore office, amid plans to become a multi-family shop, say sources.

Mark Prendiville, previously Singapore head of institutional sales at Swiss private bank Julius Baer, joined the firm in mid-January as a managing director. He used to advise clients on alpha generation with a focus on hedge funds at Julius Baer, where he worked from 2009 to mid-October last year.

Falcon is also believed to have made other recent hires to build out its capabilities.

Prendiville is not expected to be replaced at Julius Baer. It is understood that the firm’s institutional client business in Singapore was not proving sufficiently profitable – nor was it a core activity of the bank. Julius Baer declined to comment.

At the Swiss firm, Prendiville had advised clients including central banks, sovereign wealth funds and hedge funds, as well as ultra-high-net-worth individuals and family offices (FOs).

Prendiville had been advising Falcon for several years in this capacity before being asked to move over to do a similar job in-house for the family office, say sources. It is understood that Falcon’s plan is to start running money for like-minded families.

Falcon declined to comment for this article.

Prendiville started his career in Australia on the buy-side as a proprietary trader covering Asian macro themes for ANZ, Westpac and Elders/Dresdner KB. He then moved to the sell side as a macro hedge fund sales specialist at Bear Stearns then JP Morgan.

Falcon, founded in the United Arab Emirates in 2008, now has an independent asset management and investment advisory firm registered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

This reflects a trend whereby capital flows are growing from the Middle East into east Asia, and particularly Singapore, with a view to portfolio diversification, among other objectives. Private banks such as Bank of Singapore are increasingly courting wealthy individuals in locations such as Dubai and elsewhere in the UAE.