Billionaire Jean Salata to boost tech investment after mega fund raising for Baring Private Equity Asia

Barings Private Equity Asia (BPA)—led by billionaire CEO and founding partner Jean Salata—an Asia-based private equity firm raised $11.2 billion last week in its biggest fundraising round aimed at boosting investments in the region’s tech sector.

“There has been a huge population displacement in many cases, from 20% to 50%,” Salata told delegates at the Supertern Asia conference in Singapore. “That’s the whole universe of consensus flows out there.”

In the year While private equity deals have fallen this year after peaking in 2021, Salata said BPAA will continue to invest in technology services, which make up 34% of the firm’s portfolio. “This sector is basically a growing sector,” he said. “We don’t see any signs of slowing down.”

In Asia, companies in India, the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia are benefiting from increased digitization as enterprises move to the cloud and remote work, advancing automation and AI technologies, Salata said.

In the year Founded in 1997, BPAA has grown to become one of Asia’s largest private equity firms with over $22 billion in assets under management and over 220 employees in 10 offices worldwide. In March this year, the Hong Kong-based firm agreed to merge with Stockholm-listed EQT for $7.5 billion.

“We are very excited about the transaction,” said Salata. “He is leading the transformation of our company to deliver better results for our investors and make us a more competitive company in the Asian private equity industry.”

Following the EQT transaction, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, Salata will head the integrated Asia business, which will be known as BPEA EQT Asia. He will also join the EQT Executive Committee.

Salata, a Chilean national, moved to Hong Kong in 1989 and joined Barings in 1997, before leading Barings management purchasing three years later. Salata appeared this year on the Hong Kong Rich List published in February. He was the city’s richest man from the private sector with a fortune of $2.95 billion.

Baring’s portfolio of companies includes JD Health, the health products arm of Chinese billionaire Richard Liu’s e-commerce giant JD.com, and AI company Horizon Robotics.