Investments

Cult Wines bolsters Asia Pacific Presence with New Hire

Leading fine wine investment management firm Cult Wines has announced the appointment of Eddie Kir as its Head of Business Development for North Asia.

Kir will be based in the investment firm’s Hong Kong office, with a focus on expanding the company’s network of partnerships with financial intermediaries in mainland China, Hong Kong and Japan, including local and regional wealth managers, family offices and private banks.

He brings over two decades of business development, sales and marketing experience to his new role, spanning involvement in asset management firms, having been based in both New York and Singapore, according to a Cult Wines press release.

Kir was most recently the Head of Asset Management for Asia at Commerzbank AG, whom he was with for nearly 2 years. In addition, he has held positions with Sinopac Asset Management, Galaxy Asset Management, China Everbright Asset Management and UBS Global Asset Management, amongst others.

The Managing Director of Cult Wines, Tom Gearing, said of the appointment that “(Kir) brings with him a wealth of experience and local visibility, and we are delighted to welcome him into our rapidly expanding global team. With mounting investor appetite and tremendous growth potential in the Asia Pacific region, there is considerable scope to forge alliances with local asset and wealth managers looking to offer their clients an alternative investment opportunity.”

Gearing continued, saying that Kir “marks our second senior Asia Pacific Business Development hire in recent months – both established professionals from the financial sector – and we look forward to further developing and expanding our relationships with our partners in the region.”

Of his appointment, Kir added that “am thrilled to be joining Cult Wines at this very exciting time. The company’s impressive business model and reputation for delivering consistently impressive returns for its clients precedes itself, and I look forward to progressing our partnership activity.”

Cult Wines is headquartered in London, with regional offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. The company has a global client base and assets under management exceeding USD146 million.