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Cult Wines targets big growth with Hong Kong office launch

Published:  05 January, 2016

Fine wine investment company Cult Wines is to open a new office in Hong Kong as part of an ambitious growth strategy.

Founded in 2007, the company generated sales of has £17 million in 2015. It plans to grow this by nearly 50% to £25 million next year and then to £50 million by the end of the decade.

It currently has around £30 million of assets under management on behalf of some 1,800 clients across 55 countries.

Hong Kong alone accounted for around 30% of all wines sold at auction in 2014.

The Liv-Ex 100 Index, which tracks the market in secondary wine sales, was flat through 2015, however, recording a minimal fall of 0.1% over the year.

Tom Gearing, managing director of 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 and 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."

Cult Wines ranked 40th in The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 2015.

Gearing is a former finalist on the BBC's The Apprentice.

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