Private equity in Asia: market size, hubs, deals and exits

Asia is not one market. A buyout in Tokyo, a growth round in Bengaluru and a fund set up in Hong Kong run on different rules and different cycles, and the regional totals blend them all. This page gives the totals first, then the pieces.

How Asia became a private equity region

The region is a recent arrival. Since 2000 the Asia-Pacific region and emerging markets have grown in importance as investment destinations, particularly China, Singapore, South Korea and India³. By 2008 the Asia-Pacific region took 9% of funds raised but 29% of global private equity investment³. Asia was a place to invest before it was a place to raise money.

The buyout boom that peaked just before the financial crisis reached the region late. Private equity activity spread to new parts of the world, particularly Asia, although levels were still modest compared with Western Europe and North America⁴. Firms already had experience with minority equity investments, both in venture capital and in overseas investments, particularly in Asia⁴. That history explains a feature of the region today: growth and minority deals sit alongside buyouts, not behind them.

The figures in this section are dated. The IOSCO numbers describe 2008³ and the Kaplan and Strömberg paper describes activity to 2007⁴. The latest data below show a different region.

Asia-Pacific private equity in 2024

The latest regional data come from AVCJ and Bain figures compiled in a King & Wood Mallesons paper, covering 2024 and excluding real estate and deals under US$10 million¹. The compilation comes from a law firm, so treat it as context.

Two patterns stand out. Deals are getting bigger: the top 2% of deals made up 42% of deal value, and the number of megadeals rose by half¹. And buyouts now lead: they passed 50% of deal value while the share of growth deals shrank¹. For the mechanics of the first, see how a leveraged buyout works; for the second, what growth equity is.

Market by market

Greater China. The region’s largest market by deal value, defined in the data as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan¹. Greater China produced higher deal value than any other country in the region in 2024¹. Its weight is shrinking. As recently as 2020 China was more than half of all Asia-Pacific deal value, a share that declined to 27% in 2024 as GPs and LPs channelled a greater share of investment dollars to India and Japan¹.

India. The region’s best performer in 2024, and the only country with double-digit growth in both deal value and count¹. Global managers are placing large bets on it. Carlyle aims to allocate about 30% to 35% of its new pan-Asia fund to India, its largest market in Asia, and Bain Capital plans to invest 20% of its Asia fund there¹. Those are stated intentions, not outcomes.

Japan. Only India and Japan kept their 2024 deal counts close to the previous five-year average¹. The growth story is stability, helped by a weaker yen, recent reforms in corporate governance and a backlog of businesses ripe for private ownership¹. Japan led consumer-sector dealmaking with 82 deals in 2024, 37% of the Asia-Pacific total, a record for the past decade¹.

South Korea and Southeast Asia. Dealmaking is starting to revive in both¹. Southeast Asia has an infrastructure gap of around US$3 trillion¹.

Hong Kong. Both a market and a fund centre. By AVCJ Research data in the SFC’s 2024 survey, Hong Kong ranked second in Asia after Mainland China in 2024 by total capital under management by private equity funds, excluding real estate funds: US$229 billion, against US$221 billion in 2023². The SFC’s asset and wealth management survey is the regulator’s own source for that figure.

What gets bought

Technology retains the highest share of private equity deal value and deal count across the region¹. Digital infrastructure follows at the top end: of the 30 deals worth US$1 billion or more in 2024, nine were in digital infrastructure and communications¹. Secondary sales accounted for six of the ten largest exits globally in 2024, including Blackstone’s US$16 billion acquisition of AirTrunk¹.

Consumer deals rebounded in 2024. Deal value rose 41% year on year to US$27.9 billion, and deal count rose 12% to 223 deals¹.

Carve-outs, where a fund buys a division from a larger company, are taking a bigger share of the market. They were 20% of all buyouts over US$100 million in 2024, up from 11% a year earlier¹. Despite lower average returns, 44% of the Asia-Pacific GPs in Bain’s survey name carve-outs as a top place to find deals¹.

Which firms are active

There is no fixed ranking of private equity firms in Asia, and a size table says nothing about how any firm performed. The deals named in the 2024 review show who was active that year. Blackstone bought AirTrunk for US$16 billion¹. Apollo acquired Panasonic Automotive Systems¹. A PAG-led consortium acquired a 60% stake in the mall management business of Wanda Group¹. EQT and ChrysCapital jointly acquired 90% of HDFC Credila, the education loan arm of HDFC¹. KKR and SingTel invested in ST Telemedia Global Data Centres¹.

These are dated examples from one source, not a list of the biggest firms and not a recommendation. The same applies to fund-raising intentions: Carlyle’s and Bain Capital’s India allocations above are plans¹.

Exits are the pressure point

Asia-Pacific exit value dipped 1% in 2024, though manager sentiment on exits improved¹. Limited partners and general partners alike rank the exit environment as the biggest obstacle to strong returns¹. The 2011 to 2019 vintages included more than 200 portfolio companies held for more than four years at the end of 2024, a signal that managers should be looking for exits¹.

Managers have adapted. Secondary exits, sales from one fund to another, made up 27% of exit value¹. Minority stake sales, which monetise a slice of a company without a full exit, were worth US$71 billion in 2024, 15% of the exit total¹. Co-investment is also rising: a StepStone survey covering 145 GPs and 420 funds found that co-investment volume has risen approximately 30% since before the pandemic¹.

Public markets are one way out. In Hong Kong the market raised around HK$18 billion across 15 IPOs in the first quarter of 2025, and the IPO pipeline then included 120 applicants, up from 86 at 31 December 2024¹. Those are listing figures for one quarter, so they show direction, not a trend.

How an Asia-focused fund is set up

Investors rarely buy companies directly. They commit to a fund, and in Asia the fund sits in one of three common vehicles. The wider mechanics are in how a private equity fund works.

• Hong Kong limited partnership fund. Hong Kong’s Limited Partnership Fund Ordinance has been in operation since 31 August 2020⁷. A fund under it has one general partner and at least one limited partner⁷, and a limited partner is not liable for the fund’s debts beyond its agreed contribution⁷. The Companies Registry text sets out the rest, and the limited partnership fund page walks through it.
• Singapore variable capital company. A VCC is a structure mainly for investment funds, not businesses⁶. The ACRA guidance covers eligibility.
• Cayman private fund. A private fund under the Cayman Islands Private Funds Act is a company, unit trust or partnership that issues investment interests the purpose or effect of which is the pooling of investor funds⁸.

Licensing follows the manager, not the vehicle. A firm delegated with discretionary power to make investment decisions on securities for a fund in Hong Kong must obtain a licence for Type 9 regulated activity, asset management⁵. A firm that handles private equity or venture capital that does not involve securities may not by itself attract a licensing requirement⁵. Not every Hong Kong private equity firm is a licensed corporation or a registered institution². The Type 9 licence page covers the test in detail.

Read next

Start with what is private equity if the terms are new, then buyout versus growth equity for the two strategies that dominate the figures above. The Asia hub lists the regional pages. The sources for the regulator figures are the SFC’s Licensing Handbook and IOSCO’s report on private equity conflicts of interest. This page is education only and does not recommend any fund, manager or market.