Wing Lung Bank scion teams up for family office alliance in HK
The scion of the family that used to majority-own Hong Kong’s Wing Lung Bank has teamed up with an investment group to set up a single family alliance in a bid to develop a support network for the rapidly growing industry in Hong Kong.
Samuel Wu, chief investment officer and executive director of family office Tridel Capital, joined hands with Ronald Chan, CIO of Chartwell Capital, a family office turned investment manager, to set up Chartwell Family Partners late last year.
Wu and Chan have known each other for over two decades and the decision to join hands and create an alliance seemed like a natural next step.
Tridel Capital
“When I started a family office, Ronald [Chan] provided me with a lot of pointers and help,” Wu told AsianInvestor.
“We engage with the same vendors and banks, and we are on the lookout for similar opportunities. Even though I maintain my own [family] office and he manages his operations independently, we discovered a synergy and potential cost savings by collaborating,” he said.
Wu was previously a key member in the sale of his family’s controlling share in Wing Lung Bank, which was sold to China Merchants Bank in 2008. He was also instrumental in the integration of both banks.
Wu led his family office in the redevelopment of key family property holdings and subsequent divestiture of assets.
Wu and Chan said that Chartwell Family Partners, a single family office alliance, was launched in November 2023 to encourage sharing best practices and to find common solutions with other family offices.
Both of them are co-founders and managing partners of the alliance.
UPHOLDING LEGACY AND BEYOND
“The alliance focuses on upholding legacy and addressing all the needs that a typical family office may have, which go beyond pure investing,” Chan told AsianInvestor.
Questions about how to preserve the family’s virtues and legacy, ensure the education and healthcare of family members, set up a trust fund, and engage in philanthropy are topics that preoccupy the minds of those involved in family offices, Chan noted.
The alliance has already attracted other prominent family-owned entities in Hong Kong.
Chartwell Capital
“After founding Chartwell Family Partners in 2023, we invited a member of the Harilela family [Mahesh Harilela] to join us. We also extended an invitation to a family office in Thailand (the CP group) and are continuing to invite more to join us,” added Chan.
Mahesh Harilela runs his own family investment firm, M. Harilela Global Investments, which currently has exposure to blockchain technology, aviation and hospitality.
He belongs to one of Hong Kong’s well-known wealthy families, which made its fortunes in hotel development. The group owns luxury hotel properties around the world.
Another member is Alex Jiaravanont, who is vice president at Chia Tai Bright Group Company, a subsidiary of Thailand’s CP Group that is majority-owned by the billionnaire Chearavanont family.
GROWTH AMBITIONS
More than 2,700 single family offices are estimated to be based in Hong Kong, according to a recent study published by Deloitte in collaboration with FamilyOfficeHK, part of InvestHK.
“Hong Kong’s history of family wealth management, a substantial part of the asset management sector, can be traced back to as early as the late 1800s,” the report noted.
That provides considerable scope for growth for Chartwell Family Partners.
The newborn alliance has already played host to different lunches and gatherings, inviting specialists to discuss wide-ranging topics in the “hope of broadening their perspectives and discovering new solutions,” Chan said.
“We are still in the early stages, and the families we invite bring unique expertise on various subjects or topics, which facilitates diverse dialogues.”
“The networking is primarily about exchanging information, including collaboration on potential investment opportunities. It's about creating a community of experts who can share insights and observations, benefiting from collective wisdom,” added Chan.
That is a very visible trend observed by AsianInvestor: Family offices in India, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong have told AsianInvestor about the importance of forming informal and formal alliances with peers for investment and other opportunities.
Tridel Capital’s Wu said that while his family office doesn’t have any substantial collaborations at the moment, the entity engages in co-investments.
“For example, we have teamed up with other branches of our extended family clan to invest in real estate and to invest in their private equity and hedge funds. (Be mindful of how big Chinese families can get — I collaborate with second- and even third-removed cousins, i.e., the grandchildren of my grandfather's cousins). We also share market intelligence and deal flows with other external family offices, and they do the same with us,” said Wu.
Wu’s family office invests in Asia, including in Japan and Singapore, in addition to Hong Kong.
“I am also optimistic about China, but I would prefer to wait for things to stabilise a bit first," he added.
MATCHING IDEAS WITH EXPERTISE
Chartwell Family Partners hopes to help family offices match expertise with their interests and requirements.
“If we seek expertise in healthcare and there is a family office with a principal who is a doctor, that might be a good match. Similarly, if there is an expert in technology, we could consider a partnership with them,” said Chan.
“We are gradually beginning to collaborate with service providers to offer us various services for this family partnership.”
The goal of the single family alliance is to expand their network, and eventually engage at a regional level.
As part of its networking and partnerships push, Chartwell Family Partners visited Singapore as a delegation to meet with the government and other family offices.