Demand for investment talents in APAC remains strong despite economic gloom

閱讀中文版本

“What we’re finding is sustained growth and demand across strategies, which is a really good indicator of long-term health,” said Michael Di Cicco, regional managing partner of Heidrick & Struggles’ private equity practice. 

Apart from the high demand for talents, professionals across private equity, venture capital and real assets reflected that firms are investing in building their junior and mid-level ranks and in developing teams outside of traditional hubs such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. 

Looking broadly at base salary and bonus changes, 42% of respondents said they received an increase in base salary in 2019, a slight drop from 45% the previous year, while 45% of respondents said their bonuses increased for 2019, down from 59% for 2018. 

In all cases, across investment strategies and geographies, the greatest percentage gains were at the associate and senior associate levels, followed by professionals at the vice president level. 

The majority of those surveyed remain optimistic that growth will continue, with 65% expecting their base compensation to rise in the next 12 months.

On the investing landscape in the individual markets for the rest of the year, investors were optimistic with just 13% to 16% seeing a decline in investment opportunities. 

India led the pack (53%) with the most positive geographic investment outlook, believing conditions will be somewhat better or much better, followed by Japan and South Korea (48%), Singapore (42%), and Greater China (39%).

The 2018-2019 Asia Pacific Private Capital Investment Professional survey included responses from 215 investment professionals across the Asia Pacific region who provided their compensation data from 2017, 2018 and 2019, as well as their expectations for changes in compensation in 2019.