00:00Are you encouraged by the change of government from Starmer to Burnham?
00:03I think, Lizzie, it's nice to see you in person too early to say.
00:07I would say that right now investors, not only in the UK but also in the US and other parts
00:12of the world,
00:13are trying to keep their convictions and strategies alive despite political uncertainty, despite geopolitical turmoil.
00:21And I think everything that is going to the way of optimism is fuelled by the AI and quantum computing
00:29revolution.
00:30I think this is an unprecedented reset of everything we've known and done, even as a civilisation.
00:36And I think a lot of private capital is looking that way and profiting from all kinds of opportunities that
00:42arise from that.
00:43And indeed, we were just having a conversation about how exciting the opportunities are when it comes to quantum.
00:48But, of course, if that's lifting all boats and you're trying to decide, as someone wealthy, where to put your
00:56money,
00:56what would the Chancellor have to do in the October budget to attract that capital to the UK?
01:02Because I know the Prime Minister has talked about the UK having overtaxed labour and undertaxed wealth.
01:09Is that not the kind of signal that makes your clients nervous?
01:12Well, we don't have clients because capital is a single-family office.
01:15But let's say investors have a global outlook.
01:18London remains a base from which to do investments, not necessarily in the UK, sadly.
01:23But we have an office here where London is still the backyard for US money to come and scout around
01:30Europe.
01:31London has a pool of talent that is still not matched from a critical size perspective in any other city
01:38in Europe.
01:39And London still has amazing infrastructure, education, all kinds of attractions that go beyond political issues.
01:46Having said that, a wealth tax is always a word that is very much hated.
01:50It doesn't mean that the wealth that I'm used to has to be living here.
01:56But the wealth can be managed out of here.
01:58And there's many different ways to look at it.
02:00And I don't think it will erase London from the map.
02:02But no wealth tax would be great.
02:06And let's see what the budget is going to bring to us.
02:08Well, yeah.
02:09Do you think that Healy gets that?
02:10Because he's just been out on the airwaves again this morning,
02:13emphasising this message that he understands the importance of fiscal credibility.
02:17That's all well and good for the bond vigilantes.
02:20But what about wealth?
02:21Is he getting through to wealth?
02:23But also UK wealth, you know, not even international money we're talking about.
02:26And I have a lot of UK investor friends who are very worried about that.
02:30So let's send him some signals.
02:32But I'm sure there's all kinds of lobbying exercises being done out there.
02:35Has the exodus of non-DOMs from the UK under Labour been exaggerated?
02:39I know that you've moved back to the UK.
02:41Yes, I did.
02:42Are you the proof that it's been exaggerated?
02:44I think there's one feature of what the government did after the end of the traditional non-DOM
02:50that is very underrated.
02:51It's called the FIG regime, which is what I'm under now.
02:54It gives you a four-year window to be here, very free,
02:57and you're not taxed on any non-UK income.
03:01This regime is also positive because you have the remittance basis on any amount of capital.
03:06So you have to have been out for at least 10 years or to have never been here.
03:10So for international talent, I think it's very interesting.
03:13I'm very pleased.
03:14But I did move back because of FIG.
03:16I think it's very hard to find an alternative to London
03:18when you're an active investor with an international outlook.
03:21I also want to say the government has done some good things.
03:25And actually, to your previous guest, there's a big government funding package around quantum.
03:31And few people know that broadly.
03:33But yesterday, I was just speaking to a quantum company.
03:35The best photonics university in the world is actually in the UK, in Southampton.
03:41There's fantastic talent coming out of there.
03:43There's still not enough talent.
03:44The government is backing this in a big way.
03:46So let's keep doing more of this.
03:48The CEO of that particular company told me, please don't change anything in that way.
03:52So there are some silver linings here and there that we should focus on as well.
03:55OK, really interesting to get that perspective as well.
03:58And just on AI, you've written that AI could be one of the great equalizers for family offices,
04:04institutional quality information processing without institutional scale headcount.
04:08Are you already seeing that?
04:09Are you seeing jobs going?
04:11Well, I think jobs are changing.
04:13But at CapNor, nobody was let go of because of the AI revolution.
04:17But the processes have been streamlined.
04:20The due diligence processes have been increased in terms of efficiency and speed.
04:25So that's fantastic.
04:26I mean, we have to see it also in the back office functions.
04:29So we'll see how that affects jobs.
04:32But anyway, in the family office, typically you don't have a big payroll.
04:35But for sure, I think in any support industry, there'll be a lot of changes.
04:40But I would say it's about upskilling, retraining.
04:42And that's why I was saying, for instance, any computer science degree now has to integrate the new AI revolution
04:47dimension.
04:48And there's fantastic prospects.
04:50I mean, you have to be optimistic what's going on right now and take into account the fact that this
04:55has never happened ever before.
04:57One watch out point, which I know a lot of practitioners have been raising, is around governance of AI, intellectual
05:03property,
05:03and the fact that, you know, we need to control this intelligence that is not human.
05:10But then, you know, you talk about how Europe doesn't have an innovation problem.
05:14It's a scaling problem.
05:15Absolutely.
05:15We've just seen this week two European companies choosing to list in the U.S. rather than at home.
05:20A Greco out of Glasgow and Aura from Finland.
05:24What's the answer to that?
05:26Yeah, I think it's a very important point and a worrying point in a way that the talent, the ideas,
05:32the innovation are in Europe.
05:33But then the scaling for commercial traction is in the U.S.
05:37And I've been now three times to the U.S. this year, spent extensive time on the ground.
05:42And it's just that the U.S. markets reward growth.
05:45European markets still want to see the bottom line right away.
05:48And with this, you know, the lead time between the moment you innovate, the moment you see the actual reward
05:53in your bottom line, there's a big gap.
05:56And this is where I think Europe is falling behind.
05:58There are not enough rewarding growth and too focused on the downside instead of the upside.
06:03And that's something I really pity and regret.
06:06And I hope this will change over time.
06:08And that's why you have no choice but to list in the Nasdaq.
06:10Like I have other companies that I've been following and involved with for a long time and they all regret
06:15having listed in Europe and they all now want to move to the U.S.
06:18And it's really the scale, the depth of the market and this mindset of rewarding growth.
06:24What a depressing thought to end the show on.
06:27Roger, thank you for coming to see us.
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