Investor jitters over Gulf tensions are prompting wealthy families and founders to consider shifting capital to rival financial hubs, say bankers and advisers.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that high-net-worth individuals are already exploring moving assets from the Middle East to elsewhere in Asia, with most of them preferring Singapore.
The reassessment comes despite an interim deal between Iran and the United States last month. Renewed attacks have underscored the need for greater diversification in wealth management amid heightened "geoeconomic stress", experts said.
Ian Yoong Kah Yin, a private equity investor and former investment banker in Malaysia, said some of his relatives and acquaintances based in the Middle East returned to their home countries at the start of the Iran war.
"Many contacts in hedge funds, asset management companies and family offices are in the process of relocating to Hong Kong and Singapore," Yoong said. "There is after all a lot of planning and execution involved."
