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Stanhope Capital, a London-centred wealth manager with $40bn of assets, is expanding into the Gulf in a partnership with a bank owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Stanhope is establishing a “strategic partnership”, rather than a joint-venture structure, with Gulf International Bank (GIB), which does not currently offer wealth management services. Target clients include families with more than $100mn in investable assets and institutional clients such as charities and sovereign wealth fund-linked entities.
Daniel Pinto, Stanhope chief executive, said: “Many foreign banks and many wealth managers have tried to do it on their own in the region and usually have failed, and we felt that the odds of succeeding were much higher if we had a local partner with local expertise and local access to our target client base.”
Pinto said GIB would sign clients within Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and Stanhope would sign those in the rest of the world, but they would all be managed by a “hybrid” team from the two businesses. Stanhope will not establish an office with employees in the region for now but will run its side of the partnership from its offices in London, Geneva and the US.
The PIF has around $940bn of assets under management, according to the latest government data, but the country has struggled to attract foreign investment. Inbound FDI was down 19 per cent year-on-year to $20.7bn last year, the lowest since 2020.
Authorities have been keen on luring major financial institutions to establish a strong presence in Riyadh as competition intensifies with other business hubs in the Gulf, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The World Wealth Report 2024 from consultancy Capgemini showed the number of “high net worths” (defined as those with more than $1mn in investable assets) in the Middle East was 0.9mn in 2023, up from 0.6mn in 2016. They had $3.5tn in assets in 2023 compared with $2.4tn in 2016.
“The whole purpose of the partnership” was to foster wealth management expertise within Saudi Arabia, Pinto said, but he also envisaged directing more investment into the country if opportunities arose, for example in infrastructure.
The kingdom has over the past decade launched several so-called gigaprojects as part of a larger plan by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to diversify the economy away from its dependence on oil revenues. Spending on infrastructure is expected to accelerate as the country prepares to host a series of major events in the coming years, including Expo 2030 and the Fifa World Cup in 2034.
Pinto said Stanhope had looked to the Gulf, rather than Asia, to expand because “this is a client base that understand the benefit of wealth management. The Asian market is very much driven by products, not services.”
The partnership will cover global asset classes, including hedge funds, private equity and real estate, and will offer sharia-compliant products.
GIB is established in Bahrain, with a Saudi subsidiary and branches in the UAE and Oman, and had $42.9bn of assets at the end of 2024. It declined to comment.
