With eight offices across Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea, India, Australia as well as Greater China, KKR now has approximately $30 billion in assets under management in Asia and $234 billion globally as of the end of September this year. The firm sees the Philippines as an attractive market amid the global pandemic.

 Since 2018, U.S.-based KKR has invested over $1 billion into the Philippines across four investments, starting with Voyager Innovations whose flagship product is digital payment platform PayMaya.

KKR then invested into Metro Pacific Hospitals in December 2019 and First Gen in June 2020. This month, it invested into Pinnacle Towers, which aims to strengthen and expand the Philippines’ telecom infrastructure. «We see significant opportunity in the Philippines and will continue to invest where we believe we can add value to companies and the economy,» Ashish Shastry, co-head of private equity for KKR Asia Pacific & head of Southeast Asia, said.

Challenging For Investors

While the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for investors across the globe with economies posting sharp declines in growth due to varying stages of shutdowns, Shastry added KKR is «a strong believer in the underlying Philippines’ growth story and not deterred by the short-term impact of COVID-19.»

With eight offices across Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea, India, Australia as well as Greater China, the firm now has approximately $30 billion in assets under management in Asia and $234 billion globally as of the end of September this year.

Young Millennial Population

While KKR is not looking at specific industries to invest in, it is focusing on a few themes across Asia and the Philippines, among them digital transformation and data usage. «Voyager Innovations and its PayMaya service offer an excellent channel to drive content and mobile-enabled commerce to Filipinos. COVID-19 has only accelerated the trends and needs around digital, with developments like working from home, increased online purchase and delivery all reinforcing the fundamentals of investments into technology,» Shastry noted.

He added that Asia is among the most mobile-enabled regions whose «large, young millennial population are digital natives who pick up new technology extraordinarily fast.»

Partnering With Large Family-Owned Business

A second theme is infrastructure, which is estimated to have a financing gap of $459 billion per year in Asia, according to data from the Asian Development Bank. KKR sees a great opportunity to provide capital and help fill this gap for Asia and the Philippines, whose «Build, Build, Build» infrastructure program is providing the framework for business efficiency and connectivity as well as generating jobs that would propel inclusive growth and economic recovery.

«Another theme is consumption upgrades as consumers in the Philippines and across Asia seek higher-quality goods and services among the rising middle class, newly urban populations and millennials. A good example is Metro Pacific Hospitals which is delivering high-quality medical services across the Philippines,» the KKR executive said, adding that they are also looking at partnering with large family-owned businesses.