Partners Group has secured a $1bn private credit mandate from an unnamed major institutional investor in Asia, as demand for private debt continues to grow among regional allocators, according to a press statement by the firm.
The open-ended evergreen mandate will give the investor flexible, long-term exposure to private credit across Asia-Pacific. Partners Group will manage a discretionary portion of the capital, alongside co-investment commitments.
The portfolio will target senior and junior direct lending opportunities across multiple sectors and jurisdictions, with the structure designed to accommodate the client’s specific capital deployment requirements.
Partners Group said its private credit business has a 15-year investment track record in Asia and manages more than $40bn of private credit assets globally.
The mandate is the latest in a series of institutional appointments secured by the firm in Asia. Partners Group has closed more than five mandates with major investors in the region over the past year, including an €800m mandate for a sovereign wealth fund focused on direct private equity and infrastructure investments across Asia and Europe.
The asset manager has developed customised private markets solutions for institutional investors across Greater China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea.
Kevin Lu, chairman of Asia at Partners Group, said institutional investors in the region are increasingly looking to build private markets exposure in their domestic markets, with the trend extending across multiple asset classes.
Private credit is attracting particular interest from sovereign wealth funds and insurers in Southeast Asia and Japan, according to Lu, amid demand for potentially attractive risk-adjusted returns compared with public fixed-income investments.
Andrew Bellis, global head of private credit at Partners Group, said the new mandate would allow the investor to build exposure to a region offering diversification across a range of economies.
Partners Group established its Asian presence in 2004 with the opening of its Singapore office. The firm now employs more than 550 people across offices in Hong Kong, Manila, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.
