Citi Survey: EMEA Family Offices Turn to China as US Tensions Ease

Europe's old-money dynasties, Gulf sovereign-adjacent clans and African industrial families are all looking at the same map these days, and it is increasingly tilted toward Beijing. That is the unmistakable signal from Citigroup's latest Global Family Office Report, which found that ultra-wealthy families across Europe, the Middle East and Africa now see China as their most favoured market for future investment. For anyone tracking where Asian capital and global wealth are heading, this is a quiet but consequential shift.

The numbers are specific. The survey, published on Tuesday, drew on responses from 351 family offices — private vehicles set up to manage the assets of ultra-wealthy families — across more than 40 countries. Among respondents from Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), 29 per cent said they planned to increase their exposure to the Chinese market. That was the highest share of any geographic region in the study. The report attributes the mood to easing concerns over tensions between Beijing and Washington, a thaw that has made China look less like a geopolitical trap and more like a diversified bet again.

For outsiders, the term "family office" can sound abstract. In practice, these are the quiet balance sheets behind some of the world's most enduring fortunes — European industrial heirs, Gulf merchant families, African conglomerate owners — often managing billions with a mandate that stretches across generations. They are not hedge funds chasing quarterly returns. They move slowly, and when they shift allocation, it tends to reflect a structural view rather than a trade. Their collective lean toward China matters because it can presage where other institutional capital eventually follows.

What makes this survey notable is the timing. For much of the past decade, Western family offices treated China as a growth story with a political discount attached. US-China friction, regulatory crackdowns and property-sector stress pushed many to the sidelines or toward India, Japan and Southeast Asia instead. A reading showing EMEA families now most inclined to add China exposure suggests that discount is being reassessed. It does not mean a stampede. It means the conversation inside these offices has changed from whether to engage to how much.

The regional nuance is important. EMEA family offices are not a monolith. Gulf families have long-standing trade and energy ties to Asia and often move with less political friction than their European peers. European families, by contrast, have been more cautious, watching regulatory and geopolitical signals closely. African families frequently sit at the intersection of commodity flows and Chinese infrastructure investment. A common thread is diversification: China is being weighed not as an ideological choice but as one allocation among many in a world where concentration in US assets has become its own risk.

For Asia's wealth landscape, the implication is twofold. First, it reinforces China's effort to position itself as an indispensable market for global capital even as it manages its own slowdown. Second, it signals that family offices — often overlooked in favour of flashier sovereign funds and pension giants — are becoming a meaningful channel for cross-border flows into the region. If the Citigroup findings hold, the next few years could see more patient, private capital quietly anchoring in Chinese equities, credit and real assets.

The caveat is that survey intentions are not commitments. Family offices are famously discreet and can reverse course without a press release. Much depends on whether the US-China détente proves durable and whether China's policy environment feels predictable to outsiders. But for now, the world's quietest money is looking east with more interest than it has in years. That alone is worth watching.