Just weeks into the new year, family offices from Hong Kong to Brazil to New York are demonstrating the growing financial might of investing firms for the ultra-rich.
Blue Pool Capital, which helps oversee billionaire Joe Tsai’s fortune, disclosed on Jan. 28 that it had acquired a 12% stake in Golden Goose Group SpA, an Italian maker of $1,500 jewel-encrusted running shoes, amid a downturn in Europe’s luxury sector.
Three days later, the family office of Brazil’s Moreira Salles clan — worth a combined $26 billion — was said to be exploring a bid for French packaging company Verallia SA, causing its struggling shares to surge as much as 20%.
Earlier that month, the family office of Blackstone Inc. veteran Chinh Chu put forward a roughly $1.8 billion takeover offer for an Australian wealth manager.
The moves are the latest sign that family offices are stepping in to take risks when other investors shy away. They’ve pushed into the markets for buyouts, second-hand private equity and real estate in recent years and even taken activist positions at listed companies. Because they usually serve a single or small group of clients, they’re able to be more nimble than other institutional investors.
“Family offices are now an important source of private investment capital for international businesses,” said Jason Karas, managing partner of Karas So LLP, a Hong Kong-based law firm advising private wealth clients. “Family office investment in luxury brands and other unique assets is likely to grow exponentially in the next few years.”
There’s been a global boom in the number of family offices over the past two decades amid surging fortunes across tech, finance and health care. At least a fifth of the world’s 500 richest people now have a firm managing their private fortunes, including Alphabet Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin, legendary investor Stan Druckenmiller and shipping heiress Maria Angelicoussis, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Between them, those billionaires have a combined net worth of more than $3.7 trillion, the index shows.
And they’re increasingly flexing their muscles in beaten-down sectors. HomeServe founder Richard Harpin is defying weak investor confidence in his native UK, investing in British businesses through his family office. Michael Dell’s investment firm partnered last year with Silver Lake on a $13 billion deal for talent agency Endeavor Group Holdings Inc., helping to fuel a rebound in private equity buyouts. And Mithaq Capital, the family office of a dynasty tied to Saudi Arabia’s second-largest bank, owns a majority stake in struggling Children’s Place Inc.
“Families have always had an important role in markets,” said Jessica Cutrera, president of Leo Wealth, a Hong Kong-based wealth adviser and multifamily office. With “more families professionalizing their investment approach, that influence may be more noticeable.”
Blue Pool made the Golden Goose investment as its private equity unit seeks to diversify away from technology, while unearthing self-sourced deals where it can add value, said a person familiar with the matter. The Italian company abruptly postponed its Milan listing last year on concerns that the stock would fall on its debut.
Blue Pool’s other recent investments include the online tourism platform GetYourGuide, NFT firm Artifact Labs and Tabby, a buy-now-pay-later startup backed by the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala. Tsai and Blue Pool have previously invested in the luxury sector, from five-star European hotels to prestigious French vineyards.
“It’s a sizable family office,” Paul Westall, co-founder of the family office resourcing firm Agreus Group, said of Blue Pool. “They’ve got in-house expertise across various asset classes.”
Tsai, 61, is the world’s 411th-richest person, with a fortune of about $7.5 billion, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index. Most of that comes from his stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and the Brooklyn Nets basketball team. A representative for Blue Pool declined to comment.
Even as family offices grow in clout, they remain secretive compared to other institutional investors.
Tsai’s Blue Pool, after more than a decade in operation, still offers few details on its website. It features the lone image of a sailboat in a deep-blue ocean without any mention of its multistrategy investment portfolio spanning hedge funds, private credit and venture capital — or its billionaire backer.
Like most family offices, the firm doesn’t disclose its overall assets under management. Still, its workforce of at least two dozen employees — including former investment banking analysts at KKR & Co., Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. — gives a hint of its sophisticated activities. The firm is led by Oliver Weisberg, a former Citadel executive who invested alongside Tsai last month to acquire a stake in the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins.
Since the end of January, the Moreira Salles family confirmed it’s exploring a potential offer to boost its stake in Verallia, which makes glass bottles used by beverage companies. Chu’s New York-based firm, CC Capital, also saw private equity giant Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. enter the bidding frenzy for Insignia Financial Ltd. And Blue Pool’s Weisberg is set to join Golden Goose’s board of directors, highlighting how companies see family offices as more than just a source of capital.
“We look forward to adding value beyond our financing,” Weisberg said in a statement.
