GPs upbeat on changing LP base - AVCJ Forum

Speaking at the opening panel of the AVCJ Forum in Hong Kong, Marshall Parke, managing partner at Lexington Partners, noted that Asian LPs are becoming ever more prominent.

"Sovereign wealth funds and Asian investors have in general picked much of the slack globally with regards to private equity fundraising, as a number of banks and insurance companies in the US and Europe have exited their investments," he said.

Nick Bloy, co-founder and managing partner of Southeast Asia-focused GP Navis Capital Partners, agreed the industry had witnessed a rise of the Asian LPs over the past five years. However, he also noted there had been a resurgence in commitments from North American pension funds that had previously scaled back their exposure.

"A lot of those pensions, specifically in the second tier, are really going for growth and they haven't found it in North America," said Bloy. "So of course Asia is becoming more important as LPs look for relative growth differentials to benefit from."

He identified similar trend with European corporate pensions, which have looking boost their exposure to Asia in the face of trying domestic markets.

H.Chin Chou, CEO of Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, added that the Middle East has also emerged as a hotbed for LPs interested in Asia.

"Our second most important market geographically is the Middle East which has been very active only since 2006 and 2007," said "It is fair to say that the last two years have been more challenging than in 2006 and 2007, however there is a much larger LP base compared to five years ago."

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• LPs
• GPs
• AVCJ Events
• Fundraising
• Asia
• Lexington Partners
• Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia
• Navis Management