Global private investment firm Partners Group said on Friday it has opened an office in Hong Kong, in a push to expand its private wealth client base in Greater China.
The firm, based in Zug, Switzerland, had appointed Henry Chui, its head of private wealth in Asia Pacific, to lead the Hong Kong office, it said in a statement.
Partners Group’s Hong Kong-based team would focus on expanding the firm’s private wealth client base by adding local strategic distribution partners for its private market funds and products, which included evergreen funds, the firm said.
Private wealth is attractive for fund managers seeking to diversify fundraising and deal distribution channels as they believe it has a growing appetite for alternative investments.
Partners Group planned to build out a 5 to 10 person team in Hong Kong for now, primarily focused on private wealth clients and product distribution, Chui said.
It opened its first Asian office in 2004 in Singapore, its regional headquarters. The firm had since then invested about $6 billion in China, Chui said.
“We still see a lot of interesting opportunities in China,” he said at a briefing in Hong Kong on Friday.
Partners was also considering raising Asia-focused funds but right now its focus in Hong Kong was their global funds, he added.
Partners was actively discussing acquiring QDLP and QFLP licences – which are inbound and outbound investment channels – and private fund management licences, he said.
Global investment giants including KKR & Co, Blackstone Inc and EQT have all established Asia-based teams dedicated to private wealth clients in recent years.
Wealthy individual investors in Greater China are increasingly looking offshore for investment opportunities and higher returns amid China’s economic slowdown and a weakened renminbi.
Founded in 1996, Partners Group has 1,900 staff members globally and around $150 billion in assets under management across private equity, real estate, infrastructure, credit and secondaries globally.
It now has over 550 staff members in the region in Manila, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo.
The firm has launched a private equity secondary strategy fund worth up to $12 billion, betting on growing deal flows in the secondaries space, its chairman of Asia said in March at a Hong Kong conference.
Reuters