It’s Destination Singapore for a number of family offices facing India’s outward remittance ceiling, prompting them to form entities in the wealthy city state to gain greater access to global investment opportunities.
India’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) framework allows resident Indians to transfer up to $250,000 per financial year abroad for permissible capital and current account transactions, an amount too meagre for family offices looking to deploy millions.
“The LRS is designed for individuals, but family offices are increasingly becoming institutional in the way they invest. As the cheque sizes get larger and they move towards co-investments and direct investments, they need structures that allow them to deploy capital globally at a much larger scale,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and chief researcher at Hurun India, a research firm focusing on wealth creation, startups, philanthropy and family businesses.
Family offices can use multiple routes to invest overseas, including setting up branches in offshore financial hubs and investing across global public and private markets, international deals, co-investment platforms, alternatives and multi-currency portfolios.
Baldota Family Office evaluated GIFT City, Dubai and Singapore before deciding to set up an offshore entity in Singapore. The Baldota Group is a mining and metals conglomerate in Karnataka.
Other large family offices including Premji Invest, Munjal Family Office, Patni Family Office and Kothari Family Office have set up or are exploring Singapore entities as investments in technologically advanced sectors overseas become a growing area of interest, at least three people aware of the development told Mint.
Premji Invest is the investment arm of the Premji family, founded by Wipro’s Azim Premji, and manages over $18 billion. The Munjal Family Office belongs to the founders of the Hero Group, the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer.
The Patni Family Office is of the Patni brothers, pioneers of India’s early IT-services industry through Patni Computer Systems. The Kothari Family Office belongs to Hemendra Kothari, former chairman of the DSP Group, one of the most prominent financial-services groups in India.
“Structurally, if India wants to say that it has arrived as a global economy, we have to get much better at allowing capital to move in and out of the country,” said Nitesh Aggarwal, chief investment officer for Baldota Family Office. “Indian wealth is becoming much more global, and people will naturally want to diversify some of their wealth outside India. Over time, we need to make that process much easier and more seamless.”
Premji Invest declined to comment on its plans. Queries sent to other family offices did not elicit a response.
Thermax Family Office, which manages the wealth of the Aga and Pudumjee families, promoters of the Thermax Group, predominantly invests in global public markets and also has a relatively smaller private market exposure. It has established a Singapore set-up to invest globally.
“Apart from geographical diversification, a global office helps us access some of the products and strategies that are not available in India, especially hedge funds. There are plenty of strategies that we can access with this global exposure and effectively manage risk in the portfolio,” said Amol Sathe, chief investment officer of Thermax Family Office.
Tax incentives too are one of the factors that drive family offices to explore regulatorily stable jurisdictions such as Singapore, Sathe added.
Indian family offices are becoming larger and more institutional in the way they invest. According to the Julius Baer-EY Indian Family Office Playbook published in August, mid- and large-sized Indian family offices managed about ₹70,000 crore ($7.33 billion) in assets as of 2024, with assets projected to grow at a 14% CAGR over three years.
The report said family offices have evolved from primarily preserving wealth to investing across startups, infrastructure, private credit, alternatives and global markets. The LRS, introduced in 2004, allows individuals, including minors, to freely remit up to $250,000 per financial year
