Royal family you’ve never heard of builds $300B finance empire
investmentnews.comThe top royal for one of the world’s smallest nations heads a multibillion-dollar dynasty dating back almost 1,000 years that’s endured through wars, floods and scandals.
Today, the finance empire behind Liechtenstein’s Prince Hans-Adam II is flourishing from its main area of expertise: managing money for the world’s super-rich.
LGT Group, the royal family’s private banking and asset-management firm, reported record assets under management last month of almost 306 billion Swiss francs ($334 billion) as of June 30, a 6% increase since the end of last year.
The Vaduz-based firm this month closed on the purchase of Abrdn Plc’s discretionary fund-management business in the UK and Jersey, adding to at least three other external investments since 2021.
“We continue to look,” Olivier de Perregaux, 58, chief executive officer of LGT Private Banking, said in a recent interview. “We are, however, primarily focusing on organic growth.”
LGT’s rapid growth mirrors a comeback of sorts for Liechtenstein, a tiny Alpine nation of 39,000 inhabitants that once ranked among the world’s most notorious tax havens.
The roughly century-old firm more than doubled assets under management and operating income in the past decade, rebounding from its business spluttering after the US and other nations targeted offshore financial centers following the 2008 financial crisis.
LGT is among the firms poaching Credit Suisse staff after the Zurich-based lender collapsed and was acquired by UBS Group AG, helping to boost its headcount to about 5,000. In August, former Credit Suisse executive Ajay Punjabi joined LGT’s India wealth unit, one of at least a half-dozen of the Swiss bank’s former employees to join the firm this year.
“We are hiring intensely,”
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