Asset manager Blackstone to expand private-equity headcount in Singapore in Southeast Asia push
- Company will focus on sectors including technology, healthcare and financial services, and will look at deal sizes as small as US$150 million
- Blackstone joins a growing of list of global asset managers expanding or setting up offices in Singapore as investors seek alternative bases to China
Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, will double employee headcount in its private-equity business in Singapore within the next two years, a top executive said, as it looks to tap into a growing number of deals in Southeast Asia.
The expansion in Singapore will also bring the asset manager closer to its investor base, which includes sovereign wealth funds, family offices and individual investors, said Amit Dixit, Blackstone’s Asia private equity (PE) business head.
Blackstone’s Singapore PE team will grow to six or seven people within two years, and Aravind Krishnan, a managing director in its PE practice, will move to the city state from Mumbai to lead that team, Dixit said.
Blackstone joins a growing of list of global asset managers expanding or setting up offices in Singapore as financial investors seek alternative bases to China amid growing geopolitical tensions and a sluggish economic recovery there.
“Domiciling businesses in Singapore has really accelerated post-Covid,” he said. “So even if the business may be in India, China, Korea or even a global business, they will have headquarters in Singapore.”
