Blackstone to train Hong Kong wealth managers as private assets gain investor favour

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Alternative asset manager launches Blackstone University programme along with Private Wealth Management Association

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The Blackstone Group headquarters in New York City, pictured on January 18, 2023. Photo: Reuters

Aileen Chuang

Published: 8:00am, 21 Nov 2024Updated: 1:07pm, 21 Nov 2024

The world’s largest alternative asset manager Blackstone has partnered with a local industry body to launch a certification programme for Hong Kong’s wealth managers, deepening the city’s push to serve as a wealth-management hub amid growing interest in private assets.

The company, which has run the Blackstone University programme for 13 years globally, will launch it in Hong Kong along with the Private Wealth Management Association (PWMA).

The course aims to provide knowledge and resources for wealth managers to support individual investors who are increasingly looking to diversify their portfolios and allocate funds to private markets, the PWMA and Blackstone said on Thursday.

“While there’s momentum in the adoption of private markets, individual investors remain under-allocated,” said Ed Huang, head of Asia-Pacific for Blackstone Private Wealth Solutions. “We believe allocation will continue to rise as wealth-management professionals and individual investors seek portfolio diversification and attractive risk-adjusted performance.”

Participants in private markets are predominantly institutional investors such as public pension and endowment funds. However, nearly 90 per cent of the high-net-worth investors in Hong Kong intend to increase their allocations to alternative assets, including private equity, private debt, hedge funds, private real estate and infrastructure, according to a survey by Endowus earlier this year.

Top money managers have also adopted diversified asset-allocation strategies to generate alpha and hedge risks amid falling interest rates and growing geopolitical tensions.