2014-15 Private Equity APAC Compensation Survey

In November and December 2014, Heidrick & Struggles conducted an online compensation survey among global and regional private equity funds operating in Asia Pacific. We emailed our survey to 1,900 professionals and received a total of 186 responses, a roughly 40% increase in responses from our 2013 survey. 

The private equity industry in Asia Pacific is in a period of growth and change. Regional funds continue to achieve increasing larger fund sizes and expand into broader strategies, while US and European funds have moved beyond investing in Asia from global pools and have well entrenched and growing Asia-specific fund vehicles.

We have seen the following trends in 2014 and expect them to continue throughout 2015:

• Increased interest and activity in new fund initiatives, whether on platforms already established in Asia or new to the region, and particularly in real estate, consumer, environmental and infrastructure-related investing.
• A continuing focus on value creation in portfolio companies and, thus, demand for in-house talent with relevant industry and operational experience. This includes recruitment of specific operating partners as well as a more general shift toward industry experience in investment professionals.
• Increasing and broadening demand from well-funded LPs attracting investment professionals from GPs as these firms grow their exposure to direct private equity.
• Global and regional funds continuing to expand their investment and operations professional footprint, opening offices in Southeast Asia and growing teams into key secondary cities in major markets.