Private wealth of ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) households in Qatar is projected to grow by a staggering 14.5% to reach about $0.5tn by 2020, mainly driven by equities, deposits and bonds, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
“Private wealth held by UHNW households (those with above $100mn) in Qatar is expected to grow by an impressive 14.5% in the next five years. Interestingly, by 2020, this specific segment will be witnessing the highest growth,” BCG said in its report, which outlines the evolution of private wealth from both a global and regional perspective, addresses key industry trends, and explores evolving client needs – particularly those of underserved, nontraditional segments such as female investors and millennials, whose investment goals are not necessarily well-addressed by the standard, net-worth-based service approach.
Private wealth held by the upper high-net-worth (HNW) segment (those with between $20mn and $100mn) is projected to increase at the rate of 3.6% over the next five years, it said, adding private wealth held by the lower HNW segment (those with between $1mn and $20mn) will go up 5.3%.
“Looking ahead, the total number of millionaire households (those with more than $1mn in net investable assets) in Qatar is set to grow by 1% by 2020,” said the report.
BCG said over the next five years, wealth in the Middle East and Africa region is set to reach $11.8tn – and Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait’s contribution will account for 22.7% of that sum.
In 2015, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia are in the top 15 countries with highest percentage of millionaire households, it said.
Within the Gulf Cooperation Council, Bahrain had 13% households in the millionaire club, followed by Qatar (12.7%), Kuwait (7.1%), Oman (6.8%) and Saudi Arabia (4.6%).
“Segmentation approaches based mainly on wealth level continue to be used by the majority of wealth managers, neglect what clients are truly willing to pay for,” BCG Middle East Financial Services practice partner and managing director Markus Massi said, adding “such approaches no longer allow wealth managers to capitalise on the full potential of the market.”
The report also revealed that, in 2015, for Middle East and Africa wealth booked offshore, Switzerland (30%) was the destination of choice, followed by the UK (23%) and Dubai (18).
Elsewhere, global private financial wealth grew 5.2% in 2015 to a total of $168tn, according to the report. The rise was less than a year earlier, when global wealth rose by more than 7%.