Asset owner highlights 2024: Alibaba Joe Tsai's family office on sports investment; are ETFs useful?

3 days ago

From sports, China LBO to distressed PE, sky is the limit when it comes to investment for family offices. At AsianInvestor’s Asia Investment Summit, institutional investors debated whether ETFs were still useful. Here are some of the most read stories about asset owners and their investments.

Asset owner highlights 2024: Alibaba Joe Tsai's family office on sports investment; are ETFs useful?

One of the most read stories about asset owners in 2024 was AsianInvestor’s profile of Blue Pool Capital, the Hong Kong-based family office of Alibaba co-founder and chairman Joe Tsai.

AsianInvestor spoke with the family office’s CEO Oliver Weisberg about sports investment and the appeal in live sports and media rights.

Mousse Partners, family office of the owners of luxury fashion company Chanel, sees private equity opportunities in China’s onshore renminbi market, including leveraged buyout (LBO) and special situation deals.

Noting that LBO financing is becoming more mature and available in the onshore renminbi market, David Yang, head of Asia private equity at Mousse Partners, said there is now opportunity for buyout players to do deals at lower cost within the relatively low-rate environment in China.

As Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai compete to attract family offices, AsianInvestor looked at the evolving regulatory frameworks, investment opportunities for family wealth and family offices in these markets.

Riding on the wealth growth in Asia, Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative investment manager, is looking to expand its designated private wealth solutions business to more Asian markets.

The asset manager expects further growth in countries such as Japan, Southeast Asia and Greater China and aims to expand in Australia, India and South Korea.

Besides family offices, AsianInvestor also spoke with HSBC Life Hong Kong about boosting investments in private credit and private equity as the insurer made new commitment to these assets classes.

“I think the reality is that nobody has a crystal ball, and we can’t put all eggs into one basket,” HSBC Life CIO William Chan told AsianInvestor, stressing that with all the uncertainties, asset allocation strategies must be based on a return on risk comparison.

Can exchange-traded funds be a useful tool in portfolio construction? Three asset owners and one index specialist shared their views at a panel discussion at AsianInvestor’s Asia Investment Summit in Hong Kong on May 23.

The topic of active versus passive became a talking point again in 2024 as panellists discussed the advantages and disadvantages of investing in ETFs.

ETF vehicles are both good for hedging and for buying when markets dip, according to Kevin Liem, managing director at family office manager Masan Capital and treasurer at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU).

Meimei Zheng, associate director and investment strategist at Transamerica Life (Bermuda) Ltd., explained that the insurer currently does not use ETFs for its equity portfolio, but that this position might change soon.

“I think in the future, we may explore the possibilities to consider ETFs and index-related investment strategies, as part of the topic of active or passive investing,” Zheng said.