Saudi Juffali family office shifting from London to Dubai

The latest:

A family office managing a multibillion-dollar portfolio for one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest dynasties is relocating most of its staff from London to Dubai, people familiar with the plans told Bloomberg. Hasma Capital Advisors is likely to shut its longstanding UK branch by the middle of next year, those people said. The firm declined to comment through a representative.

Details:

• The client: Hasma manages a portion of the fortune of the Juffali dynasty, among Saudi Arabia’s richest families, according to Bloomberg. Its allocations span public and private equity, fixed income and hedge funds, run by the lean investment teams typical of family offices overseeing billions of dollars.
• The timeline: The firm established a legal entity in Dubai in 2025, registry filings show, and is likely to close the UK branch by mid-next year, the people said. It is recruiting in Dubai, and some London-based employees have already moved across this year.
• The executives: Chief Executive Officer Mamoun Askari is now listed as a resident of the United Arab Emirates, per registry filings. Finance head Adrian Clear relocated in August, according to his LinkedIn profile. Askari, 63, is a former managing director at Investcorp, one of the Middle East’s largest alternative-asset managers.
• Staff appetite: Several employees had asked for a Dubai move last year, the people said, and interest in relocating did not wane even after a regional war broke out in February. That conflict remains unresolved, yet the plans proceeded through the period of heightened uncertainty.
• The UK driver: A number of billionaires have left Britain over the past two years as the UK raised taxes on its wealthy elite, Bloomberg reported, damaging a long-held status as a wealth hotspot. The tax changes have deepened cracks across the private wealth sector.
• Dubai’s pitch: The city’s financial hub has drawn investment firms and family offices from around the world in recent years, leaning on a light-tax regime and the use of English common law. Abu Dhabi has also lured business, particularly from London, according to Bloomberg.
• Other departures: Shravin Bharti Mittal, a scion of one of India’s biggest fortunes, switched his residency from Britain to the UAE and opened a Gulf branch of his Unbound investment firm while keeping London. Nasir Alsharif, an executive at another London family office serving Saudi elites, returned to the Middle East last year.
• The firm’s size: Hasma, named after a Saudi desert, was set up more than a decade ago and most recently disclosed almost a dozen employees in its UK branch, registry filings show, ranking it among London’s largest investment firms for the world’s ultra-wealthy.
• The hires: Its investment ranks include former Citigroup executive Alexander Godwin, whose residency is still listed in his native Britain. In 2024, Hasma recruited Thomas Fitzmaurice from the family office of Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Prudence to focus on private markets.

Between the lines:

Bloomberg reads the relocation as a signal that Dubai stays compelling for money managers through prolonged geopolitical tension. The sharper detail is the sequencing: staff requests preceded the February war, and the firm kept moving after it began. The departure of senior professionals like Alsharif, alongside billionaire exits after the UK tax rises, points to an outflow of people as well as capital.

What’s next

Whether the UK branch closes by mid-next year as the people familiar expect, how many Dubai hires Hasma completes, and whether other London family offices serving Gulf fortunes follow with formal relocations.