Raffles Family Office backs Hong Kong co-working space player

The company, which currently has 400,000 square feet of gross floor area in Hong Kong, will use the fresh funding to expand into Southeast Asia. It is targeting Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines, with a view to establishing a cross-border community.

Raffles Family Office, which manages $2 billion in assets, opened a Singapore office in December - adding to an existing presence in Hong Kong and Taipei - as a platform for investing in local startups and incubating single-family offices. It wants to reach $10 billion in assets by the end of 2021, with headcount increasing from the 57 to as much as 120.

Co-founder Ray Tam said in an interview last January that 95% of the firm’s clients were mainland Chinese. This percentage is expected to decrease with expansion into new markets, while Chinese clients are also looking to diversify their investments.

The WorkTech investment is expected to contribute to Raffles' expansion because finding office space in Hong Kong and Singapore is a major challenge for target clients, according to Kwan Chi Man, the firm's founder and CEO.

“This investment will help to bring our vision to reality - the building of an ecosystem of partners within the wealth and asset management industry," he said. "Their business is present in a few countries. So they need to be present in a few cities, and obviously for them to set up an office in so many places, it's very hard. It's not easy, but with WorkTech and us, we have a few offices so they can leverage our presence"

Last October, Raffles took a 70% stake in a joint venture with the Chinese subsidiary of Singapore-listed iFast Corporation, to better serve the fast-growing ultra-high net worth market in China. IFast helps clients open bank accounts and start making transfers within minutes, whereas it typically takes hours in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Co-working spaces represent a complicated investment theme, given the recent travails of global operator WeWork, which abandoned its IPO and is now scaling back its footprint. After questions were raised about the sustainability of the business model, SoftBank Vision Fund and SoftBank Group wrote down their positions in WeWork by a combined $7.7 billion.

Nevertheless, Ucommune, China’s largest co-working space player has since filed for a US IPO. The company is seen as being in a similar situation as WeWork, with a track record of fast expansion and large losses.

 

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Early-stage
• Greater China
• Real estate
• China
• LPs