Direct-lending behemoths from Blackstone to KKR are looking to expand in Asia’s fledgling private-debt sector, targeting firms shut out of volatile public markets but healthy enough to survive surging inflation and a potential recession.
Bucking an industry-wide slowdown, some of these alternative-asset powerhouses are building up their presence in the region at a brisk pace. Blackstone is targeting a tenfold increase in private credit assets to at least $5 billion “in the near term” while Apollo Global Management and KKR both recently launched their first Asia-oriented private credit funds worth $1.25 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively.
KKR has made more than 15 credit investments totaling about $2.7 billion since 2019 in the Asia Pacific region, according to a KKR spokesperson.
Read more: BNN Bloomberg
