Manulife Investment Management (IM) announced on Wednesday its acquisition of a minority stake in Albamen Capital Partners, with an option to take majority ownership in the future.
The wealth and asset management arm of Canadian multinational financial services firm Manulife said the deal realizes its strategic goal for an on-the-ground infrastructure private equity capability in the Asia Pacific region, and underscores its «strong commitment» to the China market.
Albamen is a private equity infrastructure investment manager with a focus on renewable energy, data centers and other power-intensive infrastructure assets in China.
Following the deal, Albamen will have over 20 full-time employees across Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and its headquarters in Hong Kong, the announcement said.
Growing Capabilities
Partnering with Albamen will enhance Manulife IM's competitiveness in offering a broad range of wealth and asset management services across private and public markets to both onshore and offshore investors in China, Stephen Blewitt, Manulife IM's global head of private markets, said in a statement.
«Albamen adds a key, in-demand Chinese onshore infrastructure investment capability to our robust private markets team globally. Having invested for leading Chinese banks and insurers, the Albamen management team is highly regarded as a unique institutional-quality infrastructure fund manager with dedicated and proven on-the-ground investment and operational capability in China,» Myron Zhu, Manulife IM's Asia head of private markets, said.
Manulife has a sizeable presence in China, with a wholly owned institutional investment business, a wealth and asset management joint venture, and an insurance joint venture.
