Amanda Lee

As private market investments gain popularity among family offices in Asia, forging deals with other peers is increasingly favoured over outsourcing to fund managers, according to Iu-Jin Ong, co-founder of the single-family office Augventive in Hong Kong.

Central Huijin Investment, an arm of China's sovereign wealth fund, is set to take control of three major bad debt managers, as Beijing tackles growing risks in the state-dominated financial system.

South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS) is the latest institutional investor in Asia to adopt technology to manage their investment amid growing demand for such service in the region.

While the US economy and US equities outperformed last year, institutional investors could be turning to Asia as they become more optimistic over the outlook for the region, according to analysts.

While asset owners have turned to illiquid assets like private credit in pursuit of higher yields, uncertainties around US interest rate trajectory raise questions about expected returns.

Korean pension funds must accelerate overseas investments, particularly in alternative assets, to counter demographic pressures and ensure sustainable returns, says former POBA chief investment officer Jang Dong-hun.

After several years of lackluster returns, the Asian high yield market outperformed its European and US counterparts in 2024. This year, fixed income investors are likely to focus on issuers that can benefit from interest rate cuts in the US and changes in trade policy from President Donald Trump’s administration.

Asian insurers are going to increase allocations in private credit this year. They are also looking to diversify into different markets to reduce concentration risk.

The number of single family offices in Singapore is expected to rise after growing 21 per cent last year amid high cost and a tightening of its anti-money-laundering regime.

While Chinese companies leading technology innovation, green development, industrial upgrades, and consumer recovery are likely to gain interest from institutional investors, the threat of US tariffs and a lack of large-scale easing and structural reforms in China could dampen sentiment.

With 2024 having been dominated by geopolitical tensions and global unrest, AsianInvestor reflects on the asset classes that investment managers turned to in the hope of short-term stability and longer-term gains.

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.