EQT has launched a new evergreen investment strategy, EQT Nexus Asia, which is designed to give eligible individual and institutional investors access to its Asia Pacific private equity platform through a single vehicle.
The fund will invest across the private equity firm’s large-cap and mid-market strategies, targeting businesses in healthcare, services, technology and industrial technology across India, Korea, Japan, Greater China, Southeast Asia and Australia and New Zealand.
The strategy comes as EQT looks to broaden access to its private markets capabilities while capitalising on the region’s long-term economic and demographic growth. Asia Pacific accounts for around 60% of the world’s population and global economic growth, but attracts less than 5% of private equity allocations globally, according to EQT.
The firm said the region’s expanding middle class, domestically driven economies and relatively low correlation with Western economic cycles are creating a favourable environment for long-term private equity investment. The region is also supported by active IPO markets and a large pool of companies with potential to scale through operational improvements and expansion.
EQT has invested approximately $50bn in Asia since 1997 and currently has more than 150 investment professionals across nine offices in the region. Companies in its Asian portfolio employ more than 270,000 people.
Sueann Yeo, head of Global Wealth Solutions, Asia Pacific at EQT, said the new strategy was designed to give investors diversified exposure to the firm’s regional private markets capabilities through an evergreen structure.
The launch forms part of the wider expansion of evergreen and semi-liquid private market strategies, which are intended to provide eligible individual investors with access to private assets through structures that differ from traditional closed-ended private equity funds.
EQT said its investment approach in Asia will continue to focus on active ownership and sector expertise, with the mid-market representing an important part of the opportunity set.
Hari Gopalakrishnan, co-head of EQT Private Capital Asia, said the region’s large domestic economies, demographics and structural growth trends made it an attractive market for long-term investment.
Nicholas Macksey, co-head of EQT Private Capital Asia and head of Mid-Market Asia, highlighted opportunities among companies seeking to expand into new markets, scale operations or strengthen their capabilities.
The strategy will provide exposure to EQT’s existing closed-ended Asia Pacific private equity funds rather than investing directly in a standalone portfolio, giving investors access to a diversified range of companies and strategies through the evergreen structure.
