Pictet’s Pierre-Alain Wavre sees opportunities in private equity’s countercyclical nature

AFTER 35 years of investing in private assets, Pierre-Alain Wavre has learned a few lessons: take valuations with a pinch of salt, differentiate economic risk from volatility risk, and remember that economic cycles are precisely that – cycles.

He is head of Pictet Wealth Management’s Pictet Investment Office, which invests for very large wealth owners or families, with fully discretionary mandates starting at 100 million Swiss francs (S$150.4 million).

His investment experience has taken him through alternating periods of excess and dearth, which have given him the necessary perspective to take longer-term views.