South-east Asia’s private equity landscape demands more of managers

PRIVATE equity’s (PE) under-representation as a source of capital in South-east Asia is partly a reflection of the challenges that managers face in hunting for and securing targets.

As the region’s economic growth continues to accelerate, investors who hope to profit from the Asean story may need to seek out specialist managers with the ability to close deals and even build market leaders from scratch.

Data compiled by Bain shows that PE and venture capital (VC) investment value in South-east Asia is 0.2 per cent of gross domestic product. In Japan and South Korea, PE investment is 1 per cent of GDP. In North America, it is 0.7 per cent. The figure for Asia-Pacific is 0.4 per cent.