The bank said that it is opening the new facility as it found that clients from the region preferred meeting in the area rather than travelling to Hong Kong island.
UBS Wealth Management’s Hong Kong regional market manager Jean-Claude Humair said: "For us it’s more of a strategic decision to go to Kowloon to focus on the entrepreneur and to show this important group of prospective clients that we want to come your way."
Most of the entrepreneurs in the region are said to have been banking with local banks and as such do not have much exposure to wealth management or investment banking services.
The bank aims to rope in entrepreneurs with investable assets of $5m to $25m.
Barron’s quoted Humair as saying: "A lot of these entrepreneurs have created some wealth for themselves and now they are looking for investing this wealth instead of maybe investing in [their] business.
"We see now a need for this entrepreneur to tap the wealth management business."
Initially, the bank plans to employ 50 people at the Kowloon office including 30 relationship managers and wealth planners who will provide support to clients regarding succession planning, retirement planning and philanthropy.
Image: UBS’ new unit will target entrepreneurs with investable assets between $5m and $25m. Photo: courtesy of MonteCarloGenerator.
