Welcome to our 2022 Asia Pacific Private Capital Investment Professional Compensation Survey, the ninth annual edition. 

Our goal is to provide the industry with the clearest and most up-to-date analysis of how compensation is evolving across strategies and levels as private capital grows and matures in Asia Pacific. This year’s survey comes as the global economy grapples with the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine, as well as attempts to return to in-person business operations. 

Responses from 128 participants are included in the survey results. We conducted the survey in the fall of 2022.

Our private capital team and consultants across our industry practices spend significant time engaging with clients across the deal cycle. We hope this survey is useful to you and welcome questions and comments.

Highlights

After a year of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Asia Pacific private capital market is continuing to regain strength, though investment professionals remain cautious.  

According to a recent report from AsianInvestor, Asia Pacific asset owners increased their overall alternative asset allocation between October 2021 and March 2022 from 15.3% to 21.5%, but private equity allocations fell over the same period.¹

According to Preqin, “private equity and venture capital accounted for 73.6% of the total Asia Pacific private capital market in 2021,” and they “expect it to reach 83.0% in 2026.” The report also notes an expectation that private capital AUM targeting Asia will reach $6.1 trillion in total assets by 2025.²

Our survey respondents overall suggest somewhat neutral market sentiment in most markets across the region—about the same numbers of respondents in each market report they feel somewhat worse as those who report they feel somewhat better.

By strategy, market sentiment is (as it was last year) strongest in credit and special situations, with 81% of respondents seeing the outlook as somewhat better or much better. Negative sentiment is strongest in funds of funds, where 61% see the outlook as somewhat worse or much worse.

Hiring has been robust in the Asia Pacific private capital market and our survey shows that cash compensation is overall on an upward trend. Sixty-nine percent of respondents expect their base to increase in the next 18 months. However, while a higher share of respondents report an increase in their 2022 base salary (compared to 2021) than reported an increase in 2021, a higher share report a decrease in their 2022 bonus (compared to 2021) than reported a decrease in their 2021 bonus.

For full compensation data, download the full report.

About the authors

Shadi El-Farr (selfarr@heidrick.com) is the regional managing partner of Heidrick & Struggles’ Financial Services Practice in Asia Pacific and the Middle East and a member of the Private Equity Practice; he is based in Heidrick & Struggles’ Dubai office.

Stephen Zhang (szhang@heidrick.com) is a partner in the Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai offices and a member of the Private Equity and Financial Services practices.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Mohd Arsalan and Aya Iinuma for their contributions to this report.

References

¹ “Asia-Pacific alt asset investors favouring private debt, infrastructure and real estate over private equity,” Private Equity Wire, August 22, 2022.

² Preqin 2022: Alternatives in Asia-Pacific, Preqin, June 14, 2022.