Blackstone is planning to double its workforce in Asia and hire new employees across Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo, reported Bloomberg.
The move comes as the American alternative investment firm seeks to bolster allocations to its funds by private banks, wealth advisors, and family offices and increase its focus on the affluent segment.
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Blackstone currently employs 20 staff in ‘Asia to provide innovative solutions that are designed for eligible Asian individual investors’, according to Blackstoneprivate wealth solutions Asia head Herbert Suen.
Suen also said that the firm is also planning to add new employees in Shanghai, where it mainly partners with private banks serving the high-net-worth (HNW) individuals.
Blackstone, which expanded into the region seven years ago, has been getting ‘tremendous’ response from the Asian investors in recent years, according to Suen.
He also said that the firm’s ‘inflows have grown multiple times’ during the period.
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By GlobalDataAccording to Suen, institutional investors usually allocate about 25% to 40% of their portfolio to alternative investments globally but when it comes to individual investors it is only about 5%.
He said that Blackstone has set up ‘semi-liquid’ structures in response to demand from individuals who prefer short-term deposits for their investment and increased liquidity.
The Asia hires are said to be part of Blackstone’s global recruitment drive to take advantage of the evolving HNW wealth space.
In October last year, Bloomberg reported that is planning to ‘virtually double’ the number of its advisers catering to wealthy clients.
Last year, a report by SCMP said that US-based investment management company Wellington Management is planning to increase its Asia headcount by 20%.
