Cult Wines to open in HK

UK fine wine specialist, Cult Wines, has announced it is to open an office in Hong Kong this year.

Specialising in the “acquisition and investment management of fine wines”, the company said it had decided to make the move after seeing its annual profits rise by 105% from 2014 to 2015.

With over 1,800 clients in 55 countries, Cult Wines has said its assets under administration amount to around £30 million and the firm is aiming for sales of £25m next year, rising to £50m by 2020. Sales in 2015 amounted to £17m.

Tom Gearing, managing director at Cult Wines, said: “We’re delighted to be launching our proposition to the Asian market and are very excited to be working with strategic investment partners in China.  Our performance over the last year has helped us cement our position as one of the leaders in the wine investment market and we see targeting the Hong Kong & China market as a natural extension of our current growth plans and this will certainly help us to consolidate our services to a growing client base in Asia.

“For many people wine collecting is seen as a hobby for the rich but more recently fine wine is being recognised as a genuine alternative asset class, providing significant diversification benefits from mainstream financial markets. Not only can the sector provide strong returns under expert guidance but it is an enjoyable, collectible, tangible asset that has a very exciting future.

“Fine wine investment can act as a defensive holding as it has the capacity to remain stable under difficult economic conditions. It has the advantage of not necessarily following the general trend of lagging behind the rest of the market during economic expansion because demand is consistently strong. Real assets remain an attractive option as they tend to change in value independently of the core financial markets.”