By DPA
Singapore : Private equity investors in Asia regard China as the market of choice followed by India, a survey by management consulting firm KPMG said Monday.
According to this year’s survey of 119 private equity firms, 61 percent of the respondents said they have assets in China while 37 percent had assets in India.
Australia and Singapore were third with 29 percent followed by Taiwan with 28 percent and Japan with 21 percent.
Malaysia, New Zealand and Thailand each attracted 18 percent. The least penetrated markets were Indonesia, picked by 14 percent, Vietnam, 10 percent and the Philippines, eight percent.
Looking ahead, China is still the prime market. Some 74 percent of private equity investors expect to have assets in the country five years from now.
India becomes even more popular with 63 percent of the respondents who said they would have assets in the country during the extended time frame.
Growing wealth and personal disposal income of the middle class “has elevated interest in personal consumption in markets like China and India”, said Diana Koh, head of the KPMG Private Equity Group.
Consumer markets are likely to overtake financial services and telecommunications over the years, the findings said. Environmental technologies, health care, telecommunications, media and technologies are also expected to dominate.
Asia’s economic growth, particularly that of China and India, was mentioned as the key factor driving interest in the region.