Hong Kong-based Raffles Family Office (RFO) has appointed Stella Kong in the newly created role of managing director for Greater China, according to a statement from the firm.
Kong, who will split her time between Hong Kong and Shanghai, will lead the firm’s business expansion in Greater China. She will report to Chiman Kwan, the firm’s founder and CEO.
Kong was managing director and chief marketing officer at Deyu Family Office in Hong Kong, where she joined in 2017, according to her Linkedin profile. Before that, she was managing director and market group head for China at Credit Suisse and deputy regional head of private banking for Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered Bank.
Kong’s hire follows after RFO established in October a Shanghai-based joint venture firm with I-Fast Corporation. It also has an office in Taiwan, where it started operations last year.
Hong Kong remains the firm’s largest office with about 35 staff, including relationship managers and investment professionals. The majority of the firm’s assets are also sourced from Hong Kong, particularly from offshore mainland Chinese clients.
Elsewhere, it has an office in Singapore, where it set up an office in 2018. The Singapore team has nearly 20 staff, including relationship managers, one portfolio manager and operational support.
Re-shifting back to China?
Kong’s hire comes just after the firm said in March that it was shifting its focus to Singapore as the coronavirus outbreak was peaking in China.
“We have everything registered now in China and have also set-up our We Chat page,” Jaydee Lin, Singapore-based managing partner at RFO, said at the time. “But because of the Covid-19 outbreak, everything has been put on hold at the moment.”
However, business activity is slowly resuming in the mainland, and the firm has decided to resume on its expansion plans in China.
“RFO has been closely observing the situation in mainland China. With business activities resuming in the mainland, RFO is also moving ahead with its expansion plans, which include bringing in talent,” a spokesman for RFO said.
Since March, the firm made several senior hires in Singapore, including managing director and relationship manager Marvin Koh, who was previously from DBS, and Simon Lints, who was hired to drive the firm’s business expansion in Southeast Asia, including Thailand and Malaysia.
