Portfolio Advisors, a global private market firm that has backed pan-Asia funds and country-focused vehicles such as Baring Private Equity Asia and Bain Asia, sees a more consistent performance from buyout and control transactions in the Asia Pacific.
The firm has made both primary and secondary investments in the region, with a heavy weight on more developed markets like China, India, Australia and Japan, its managing director Michael Liu told DealStreetAsia in a recent interaction.
The performance in Southeast Asia has not been consistent as much, he noted, as most of the deals in this region have historically come from minority growth transactions. “That said, we have seen some emerging names that have done well. That’s going to produce more consistent performance,” he added.
The firm’s SE Asia strategy is more about finding “the right asset at the right price, and the right risk-reward” strategy.
Portfolio Advisors, with offices in the US, Europe and Asia, has a strong venture capital in the US and, in Asia, the firm’s exposure to the VC space has only been in China and India.
“VC is a space where you need an ecosystem to really support consistent returns. That’s why we have been focusing on the bigger domestic markets like China and India,” Liu said.
Liu revealed that Portfolio Advisors has backed both pan-Asia funds and country-focused vehicles such as Baring Private Equity Asia and Bain Asia, Kedaara and Chryscapital in India, Orchid Asia and Ascendent Capital Partners in China, and Crescent Capital Partners in Australia.
The fund-of-funds has to date committed more than $2.3 billion to nearly 130 Asia-focused primary funds, secondary transactions and co-investments, according to its website.
Portfolio Advisors had secured close to $180 million for its Asia Secondary Fund VII, which targeted a corpus of $300 million, as reported by DealStreetAsia in November 2021. Liu declined to comment on the fundraising.
Founded in 1994, Portfolio Advisors has established over 300 GP relationships, managing $38.3 billion of total assets.
Edited excerpts of the interview with Liu:-
