Capturing tomorrow’s growth through institutional-grade investing

From data centre infrastructure that supports the AI economy to sports as an emerging asset class, Standard Chartered Global Private Bank opens the door to institutional-grade opportunities for its clients

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High-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) have spent recent years discovering that some of the strongest growth opportunities usually lie outside public markets. Global private market assets under management have already surpassed US$13tn and are widely projected to exceed US$20tn by 2030, according to industry estimates. Allocations among wealthy individuals continue to rise. Access, however, remains uneven. The best managers and most compelling strategies are still hard to reach, and few individuals have the time or specialist resources to conduct proper due diligence.

This gap is what Standard Chartered Global Private Bank’s Alternative Investment Summit in Hong Kong, themed “Growth by Design: Alternative Pathways in a Changing World”, set out to address. Five specialist managers presented to the bank’s top-tier clients, showing how institutional-grade opportunities can be made available through carefully chosen partners.

Peter Tung, Regional Head of Private Banking for Greater China and North Asia, set the tone. For HNWIs, he said, the question is no longer whether to allocate to alternatives. It is how to do so with the right partners, the right structure and the right conviction.

The firm maintains an average gross exposure of around 100 per cent – effectively no leverage – and applies strict stop-loss rules at position, portfolio and team level. When markets turned sharply in early 2026, FengHe cut gross exposure from 90 per cent to 60 per cent in two days. Capital was preserved and later recovered. As the episode underlined, long-term conviction is sustainable only when paired with the ability to protect the portfolio in the short term.

Moderated by Dany Dupasquier, Group Head of Fund and Alternative Selection at Standard Chartered, the first panel examined the growing role of private capital in sectors once seen as peripheral to institutional portfolios.

Jeevan Sagoo, a Managing Director at Ares, made the case for sports, media and entertainment. “Sports, media and entertainment as a category can serve as a core institutional allocation for some investors today given its breadth and the variety of access points,” he said.

Steve Willmann, Firm Partner and Treasurer at TPG, offered a complementary view. “We buy into things we have conviction in, not what is for sale,” he said. TPG focuses on five core sectors and favours creative structures such as corporate carve-outs and structured partnerships. The firm has a long track record in technology and AI, seeking to generate value through insight, creativity and hands-on engagement.

The final panel, moderated by Sabina Chiang, Head of Managed Investments, Wealth Solutions, Hong Kong at Standard Chartered, turned the focus to real assets.

Asia Pacific data centre investment reached a record US$11.6bn in 2025, according to CBRE figures cited by the South China Morning Post.