EQT has launched an Asia Pacific-focused evergreen strategy that will give eligible individual and institutional investors access to the Swedish investment firm’s regional private equity platform.
EQT Nexus Asia will invest across the firm’s closed-ended large-cap and mid-market strategies, targeting companies in healthcare, services, technology and industrial technology across India, South Korea, Japan, Greater China, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
The launch expands EQT’s evergreen offering as private-market managers increasingly develop vehicles designed to provide individual investors access to private assets alongside traditional institutional capital.
EQT said Asia accounts for about 60% of the world’s population and 60% of global economic growth but attracts less than 5% of global private equity allocations, highlighting what it sees as an opportunity in the region’s expanding buyout market.
EQT sees opportunity in Asia’s expanding buyout market
The region has a roughly $35 trillion economy growing at more than 4% annually, while its expanding middle class is expected to reach about 3.2 billion people by 2035, EQT said.
The firm has invested about $50 billion in Asia since 1997 and now has more than 150 investment professionals across nine offices in the region. Companies in EQT’s Asian portfolio employ more than 270,000 people, according to the firm.
EQT said its Asia strategy will benefit from rising domestic consumption, demographic growth, relatively lower correlation with Western economic cycles and active capital markets.
The firm is also emphasising opportunities among mid-market companies that are reaching an inflection point as they seek to expand geographically, scale operations or strengthen capabilities.
“EQT Nexus Asia is designed to provide eligible individual investors and institutions access to Asia’s evolving private markets landscape,” Sueann Yeo, head of global wealth solutions, Asia Pacific, EQT, said in a statement.
The strategy will be led by EQT’s existing Asia investment platform, with Hari Gopalakrishnan and Nicholas Macksey serving as co-heads of EQT Private Capital Asia. Macksey also leads the firm’s Mid-Market Asia strategy.
The launch comes as private equity firms globally seek to broaden distribution beyond traditional pension funds and sovereign investors by developing evergreen and semi-liquid products for the private-wealth market.
