Asian Private Banker: US alts giant doubles Asian discretionary assets in four years

US-headquartered Hamilton Lane is beefing up its alternatives offerings and talent hiring to better serve the growing needs of U/HNW and family office clients in the region. 

“Our Asian discretionary AUM has doubled in the past four years to US$20.9 billion, demonstrating the strong growth that we have had in Asia,” according to Kerrine Koh, head of Southeast Asia, Hamilton Lane, adding that “as we started to grow our evergreen platform in Asia about five years ago” the firm is really proud of this achievement. 

She noted that private market penetration in private wealth is still very low, with estimates putting it at below 5% of investors’ portfolios. 

“We have been in the market for more than 30 years, doing just private markets with the focus of serving institutional clients. Now [that] we turn our eyes to private wealth and high net worth individuals, we feel that that is a huge gap,” she noted. 

Hamilton Lane currently manages approximately US$903 billion in AUM and supervision, comprising US$120 billion in discretionary assets and nearly US$783 billion in non-discretionary assets, as of end-2023. 

Singapore-based Koh worked for BlackRock for over a decade before joining Hamilton Lane. Her last title was head of alternatives distribution for Southeast Asia. 

Building alts blocks

Koh noted that after laying out some of the flagship funds to Asian clients, the next step for the firm is to provide exposure and more products for end clients from a more diversified perspective. 

“We are actually creating more products that are key building blocks. We currently cover private equity, private credit, so we are looking to launch a private infrastructure fund,” Koh told Asian Private Banker.  

The Nasdaq-listed alternatives investment manager has recently raised US$4 billion for its private market fund. 

In May, the firm’s Global Private Assets Fund (GPA Fund) reached approximately US$4 billion in AUM and built a five-year track record of performance with an annualised net performance of 14% since inception as of 31 March 2024. 

Since launching in 2019, the GPA Fund offers portfolio construction diversified across buyout, credit and venture capital/growth through a single allocation, according to the firm. 

Hirings to continue

The firm continues its hiring for business expansion in the region. 

Most recently, Nelson Chan joined the firm from UBS Global Wealth Management in May. Chan is a vice president in the client solutions department. He is responsible for the business development of investment solutions and strategies for intermediaries and private wealth. 

The firm currently employs nearly 700 professionals operating in offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. 

The firm has more than 50 individuals in Asia, and more than half are in sales or distribution. The firm is also increasing its headcount in Japan and Australia.