Global investment bank and management consultancy firm ARC Group is expanding its asset and wealth management business in Hong Kong, deploying in-house capital across a mix of traditional industries and high-growth tech sectors before it looks to open the strategy to external investors.

The practice, led by Nigel Wong, head of asset & wealth management at ARC Group’s Hong Kong office, is positioned to be a key growth engine for the firm historically known for its cross-border investment banking and management consultancy operations.

Established in 2015, ARC Group primarily offers cross-border transaction and operational advisory to midmarket Asian companies tapping global capital markets. Its core capabilities span initial public offerings (IPOs), mergers and acquisitions (M&As), corporate financing, special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) listings, and beyond.

Wong—who has been with ARC Group for almost four-and-a-half years, including an initial stint at its Shanghai office—told DealStreetAsia in his office that the firm has made available nearly $100 million of inhouse capital for multi-strategy investments, such as pre-IPO financing, structured equity and debt, special opportunities, and digital assets.

Since the summer of 2024, the young asset and wealth management team has already completed multiple investments in the US and across Asia using proprietary in-house capital.

Some of their recent deals include a $15-million investment in Hong Kong-listed clinical-stage biopharma Cloudbreak Pharma in June this year, and an April deal in which they participated in the 652.5-millionMalaysian-ringgit ($161.4 million) IPO of MTT Shipping and Logistics Bhd, following the Malaysian shipping group’s public listing on Bursa Malaysia’s Main Market.

The team aims to deploy a further $50 million in proprietary capital by the end of 2026, according to Wong. His deal pipeline covers various sectors, including physical AI, data centres, restaurant chains, consumer recreation, and medtech.

The asset management arm focuses on global mid-market opportunities, a natural extension of ARC Groupʼs heritage of advising mid-market clients operating across Asian and Western markets. Over the years, the firm has built a strong foothold in capital markets execution and cross-border transactions, particularly in facilitating SPAC listings in the US by high-growth Asian companies, leveraging the wave back in 2020-2022 when dozens of regional companies accessed US public markets via SPAC structures. During the SPAC boom that peaked in 2021, Southeast Asian “super-app” Grab Holdings completed the largest-ever $40-billion SPAC merger in global history for a US listing.

“A lot of what we look at never gets broadly shopped. It comes through people we’ve worked with for years—sponsors, brokers, family offices, and founders—who call us first because they know we can move fast and actually get a deal done,” said Wong.

He said: “A lot of [asset management] firms look at ownership structure or disclosure gaps in a Greater China or Southeast Asian company and walk away. We know which of those are just how these businesses are built at this stage, and which are real red flags. That’s often the difference between passing on a good company and catching it early.”

ARC Group sets sight on HK for asset management growth

Having obtained a Category 4 (CAT4) licence from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) in early 2024, ARC Group is expanding its regulatory footprint in East Asia, currently focusing on Hong Kong to drive its next phase of growth.

“There are opportunities on the asset management side for us to bring in other limited partners (LPs) to help manage their money rather than just being proprietary. So, the big push on the proprietary side right now is to build that track record,” said Wong. “If we can potentially help companies list here [in Hong Kong], participate in placements, or support capital raising for companies here—that’s fantastic.”

Hong Kong’s established capital markets infrastructure, alongside the firm’s existing presence across regional offices in Hong Kong and mainland China, make the city a natural jurisdiction for its planned expansion into asset management services, he said.

The expansion follows a rebound in Hong Kong’s capital markets and strong initiatives by local authorities to cement the city as a premier global wealth and asset management hub amid a heated rivalry with Singapore to win over global fund managers and wealth families.

Furthermore, as Chinese companies seek alternative offshore fundraising venues amid lingering US-China geopolitical tensions, Hong Kong has re-emerged as a go-to venue for overseas listing plans and private placements.

“We’re actively hiring to significantly scale our Hong Kong team this year,” said Wong. To accommodate this growth and maintain required regulatory separation between advisory and asset management operations, ARC Group is also expanding its Hong Kong presence to a larger office space.

The plan will see ARC Group offer an all-around suite of wealth and asset management, brokerage, and advisory services in Hong Kong, spanning securities dealing, securities & corporate finance advisory, and asset management.

Such full-service licensing in Hong Kong typically takes 6-12 months to complete, according to industry practitioners.