10 investment ideas for 2024

Experts say it's time to shift from public to private investments.

- Noreen Jazul

MARKETS & INVESTING 

Wealthy investors are choosing to diversify their portfolios by investing in private and alternative assets, a strategy that is gaining attention and prompting many others to emulate.

Accredited investors in Singapore and professional investors in Hong Kong, for example, have also been diversifying into private markets and alternatives, which is underutilised in both markets, said Samuel Rhee, co-founder, chairman and chief investment officer of Endowus.

“The systematic harvesting of illiquidity premiums coupled with the fact that companies are staying private for longer and the structural growth of private credit that is disintermediating the banks allows for greater opportunities to be had for investors in this space,” Rhee told the Singapore Business Review.

Currently, Rhee said investors are still underweight in private markets such as private equity and private credit.

The latter, however, has become more appealing to Asian investors. Citing data from Preqin, Rhee said the Asian private credit market has surged from US$3.2b of assets under management (AUM) in 2000 to US$90b as of June, 2022.

As the Asia Pacific market matures, Preqin foresees accelerated growth in the Asian private credit market.

Alta’s head of Private Capital Markets, Muzahir Degani, also agrees that private credit will remain an “attractive asset class.”