Wish you were here…

European nations may have deep historical ties with the Asia Pacific region, dating as far back as Marco Polo and Vasco da Gama, but European GPs have largely been late entrants to the region. European LPs, especially those with development capital mandates, in some cases preceded them, but by and large the groundswell of Western private equity investment into the region in the first decade of this century was fueled by the greenback, not the euro. With the entry of some major European buyout players like Permira, this may be changing, just as regulatory moves in the European Union cast fresh doubts over the prospects for the asset class at home.