Asia-Pacific Market Intelligence Report 2025
Rede Partners is delighted to publish its inaugural Asia-Pacific Market Intelligence Report. Drawing on the views of 70 established institutional investors in the region together with our own market insights, the Report analyses the opportunities, concerns, priorities and forward plans of the leading investors in Asia-Pacific’s private markets.
Key findings from the report:
1. LPs looking to Asia-Pacific for both diversification and alpha outperformance
For the LPs in our survey, Asia-Pacific tends to be a small component in their portfolios: around 50% of investors have less than 10% of their programmes allocated to the region. The survey reveals two key drivers for these investments. Portfolio diversification was the main rationale, featuring in the responses of around 40% of our LPs. These LPs typically invest in either pan-Asian or country-specific strategies. In addition, 32% of LPs stated that alpha/outright performance was their primary rationale for investing. Such LPs typically do so by investing within country-specific strategies. For many, Asia-Pacific is therefore not simply a portfolio add-on, but a source of untapped potential in which investors are actively seeking out new opportunities.
2. As private markets evolve in the region, articulation and replicability of strategy is of increasing importance
The market has undergone a noticeable evolution over recent years. In general, growth investing has become more difficult due to difficulties with IPO exit routes and modest multiple expansion over investment periods. At the same time buyout investing has increased with steady momentum, as a result of regulatory tailwinds and a requirement for more hands-on investing to deliver alpha. This shift is reflected in LP sentiment: strategy differentiation, which is typically scrutinized more within buyout investing, was deemed the most important factor when deciding whether to commit to a new manager (with attributable track record a close second).
3. Wider concerns still weighing on investors’ minds, with distributions the biggest of these, but new exit routes are emerging
The ability to exit investments was the most important concern for those in our survey, echoing wider global anxieties. In response, managers are increasingly becoming more creative; in particular, we have seen a meaningful rise in secondary activity within the region, with this exit route now effectively being on a par with trade sales (the historic main exit route). This is a trend we expect to continue, and is likely to alleviate some concerns about exiting investments and in turn release funds for new deployments. Our survey also shows that macroeconomic, regulatory and geopolitical risks continue to weigh on investors’ minds. However, parallel optimism about likely opportunities for outperformance and stated intentions to maintain or increase allocations indicate that this unease is not leading committed investors to reduce deployments in the region.
4. Opportunities emerging for GPs to forge new investor relationships; buyout is the clear preference
Looking toward the future, the overwhelming majority of investors in our survey remain committed to Asia-Pacific: of our respondents, 67% indicated to us that they intend to maintain their allocations, and a healthy 21% indicated that they intend to deploy more equity in the region in the next year. Within this, just under 30% of respondents indicated that they expect to invest solely in existing commitments over the next twelve months, placing those GPs in pole position to benefit from increases. However, at the same time, 70% said that 10% or more of their investments would be with new relationships, suggesting some reshuffling of LP portfolios. Reshuffling is also apparent across asset types: where historically, investors in the region focused on growth-oriented asset classes, which have experienced poor performance, the overwhelming inclination among our respondents going forward reinforces recent trends towards buyouts.
5. More developed economies are most in vogue: Japan and Australia lead the way while new options emerge in China
As allocations between countries within the region are re-balanced, we are seeing the emergence of some clear winners. Japan, with an improving economy, low interest rates, a relatively weak currency, loosening economic regulation and a government with a more open attitude towards external investment is continuing to garner increased enthusiasm as a destination for private capital. Australia is similarly high ranked, while India and South Korea are attracting interest from certain quarters. In the light of recent trends, it was unsurprising to see China lower on LPs’ priority lists for investments, with 58% of respondents seeing the medium-term outlook for allocations to Chinese managers or China exposure as negative. However, the vastness and depth of the Chinese economy cannot be ignored, and new opportunities are emerging as LPs continue to seek interesting ways to play this opportunity while mitigating some of the risks that have historically been associated with it. In particular, there is increasing awareness of the attractiveness of investments that focus principally on internal demand within China, and we expect to see this develop further in coming years.