New York Life Capital is renamed GoldPoint

"The firm has evolved significantly during the past 20 years, from a small team largely managing alternative assets for New York Life, to a multi-product boutique managing more than $9 billion of private equity and debt assets, with the majority of capital coming from outside institutional investors," John Schumacher, GoldPoint's chairman, said in a statement.

New York Life Investment Managers operates under multiple boutique investment structure covering a range of asset classes. GoldPoint's private equity offering includes co-investment, mezzanine and fund advisory programs.

Schumacher spoke at the AVCJ Forum in Hong Kong last month, participating in a panel of institutional investors who said it was difficult to justify increasing Asia PE allocations beyond 10% until risk factors ease and local managers build steady teams and substantive track records.

"At some point it has nothing to do with risk and return and everything to do with alpha generation," Schumacher said. "We are still allocating 10% to Asia because there is growth in the region but every time a Chinese company de-lists we get phone calls asking why we continue to invest in the region. There are some endemic issues that need to be addressed for us to deploy any more capital."

He also expressed concern about the lack of experience and instability in many Asian private equity firms, asking whether there was a single GP in the region that could match GoldPoint's roster of eight partners with an average tenure of 16 years.

GoldPoint has been investing in Asia since 1995, building up a network of relationships. In 2001 it changed strategy and made two discreet fund-of-funds commitments, one focused on China and another on India. It also set up a joint venture with an emerging manager in India and owns part of the GP.

The name GoldPoint is inspired by the six-storey golden pinnacle that sits atop the New York Life building on Madison Avenue in New York City. It will be incorporated into the firm's new logo.

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