UAE-based Holborn Assets has opened an office in Johannesburg and recruited an eight-strong team of advisers as the company pursues a global expansion during 2018.
The new office in South Africa’s largest city is led by Lourens Reichert. He and his team will focus on providing specialist financial planning strategies and solutions to high net worth South African residents – expats and nationals – who hold assets overseas or who invest internationally.
They will also use their expertise to assist companies in efficiently managing their international operations and advise on corporate structures.
“Our expertise is in helping high net worth (HNW) individuals and corporates in structuring their assets and investments in the most financially efficient and productive ways,” said Reichert.
“There’s a growing need for expert financial advice in this area as greater numbers of South African residents are investing offshore or holding overseas assets, creating more demand for a wide range of financial planning solutions to maximise growth potential in a tax efficient way. This sector is becoming an increasingly important part of HNW wealth planning in South Africa and my team is the most experienced one in this field in the country.”
Reichert spent more than 10 years working in the City of London, in asset-backed lending, before returning to South Africa to focus on private wealth, taxation and estate planning. In his home country he built a specialist financial planning division within one of the largest independent wealth advisories in the world, advising on offshore investments and corporate structuring, growing assets under advice to some R500 million in just over five years.
He said: “Coming to Holborn gives my team and I the opportunity to grow the business even further. The first priority will be within South Africa and then we will explore the many opportunities that exist for providing specialist advice across the African continent.
“Holborn has a great reputation for its integrity, professionalism and for supporting its staff and investing in them and the business. It is also going in a really exciting direction and it’s great to join the company when it is on such a growth track.”
Bob Parker (pictured), Holborn Assets’ CEO and founder, said: “South Africa is full of potential. There’s an enormous amount of capital held by residents outside of the country and Lourens and his team are experts in advising clients on how to manage that for maximum growth and efficiency. We’re delighted to welcome them to Holborn Assets.”
Last month Holborn Assets announced it had acquired Globaleye Hong Kong and opened a new office in the Central District. In October 2017 Holborn Assets Malaysia opened in Kuala Lumpur. New offices will be opening in more locations around the world in 2018.
