The private wealth management arm of ASK Asset & Wealth Management Group, the Indian financial services firm in which private equity firm Blackstone acquired a majority stake in 2022, has set up an office in Dubai to facilitate investment from the Indian diaspora and international investors into Indian capital markets.
ASK Private Wealth's new office in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) will act as a hub for the firm’s Middle East and Africa operations, the company said in a statement.
“The Indian diaspora has global ambitions, and we would like to partner with them in their outreach. This move will enable us to offer overseas investors a gateway to India’s dynamic markets while supporting Indian clients in diversifying globally,” said Rajesh Saluja, co-founder, CEO and managing director of ASK Private Wealth.
Salmaan Jaffery, Chief Business Development Officer of the DIFC Authority, said ASK’s office comes at a time when Dubai is seeing “unprecedented” global inflows of private capital as well as of wealth and asset managers, making it “the centre of gravity for wealth in the Middle East”.
The development comes four months after ASK Private Wealth launched a $100 million fund designed for non-resident Indians (NRIs) and overseas citizens of India (OCIs). In fact, the company aims for a large share of the fund’s assets under management to originate from investors domiciled in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. It will also offer its India-based clients access to global markets for portfolio diversification.
The firm expects maximum interest in the multi-strategy and multi-manager ASK Wealth Advisors India Opportunities Fund from the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. Domiciled in India’s GIFT City, the alternative investment fund is structured as a fund-of-funds that will secure investments from NRIs.
ASK Group’s diversified businesses include ASK Property Fund, wealth management and multi-family office services under ASK Private Wealth, long/short funds under ASK Hedge Solutions, non-banking finance company ASK Finance, and its international business arm ASK Capital.
ASK Asset & Wealth Management Group has over 20 offices and branches across India, Dubai, and Singapore. It caters to multiple asset classes and investors such as wealthy individuals, institutions, family offices, pension funds, fund-of-funds, and sovereign wealth funds across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.
The group has more than $9 billion in assets under management. ASK Private Wealth manages $5 billion in assets for about 3,500 high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.
