Eight joins the Millionaires club

Hong Kong - MillionaireAsia has signed its largest licensing deal to date, expanding the publication into Hong Kong, Macau and China.

Eight Custom Media, the publishing arm of Eight Partnership, has landed the contract to publish three separate editions in each respective market.

The move follows the quarterly magazine's recent push into Japan and Malaysia in February this year.

MillionaireAsia targets high net worth individuals with assets exceeding US$1million, via a database that now includes some 60,000 millionaires across Singapore, Indonesia, India, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Monaco.

Brian Yim, founder and publisher of MillionaireAsia, said the three additional markets were some of the largest and fastest growing concentration of millionaires in the world.

He added that initially 10,000 copies would be distributed to each market, but in Macau, additional copies may be distribution to five-star hotels and casinos.

Eight has also opened a special office in Macau to handle MillionaireAsia sales, distribution and some editorial work.

"We're only targeting a very select group of high net worth individuals so there will be no newsstand sales or anything like that," Yim said.

"We don't view this as a society magazine with pretty pictures. We view the titles as being focused on providing a very specific audience with the information they need to expand their wealth, protect their wealth, and enjoy their wealth and their hard work."

The latest Merrill Lynch World Wealth Report shows the total number of high net-worth individuals in Hong Kong climbed to 95,000 after increasing 10.2% last year. Mainland China was the world's second fastest-growing high net worth individual market after India's 22.7%, rising by 20.3% to 415,000 millionaires.

Bjorn Fjelddahl, managing director of Eight Custom Media, said the company was looking forward to taking on the project.

"It's a big step for us at Eight and we're really looking forward to publishing our first issue," he said in a statement.