Welcome to our 2020 Asia Pacific Private Capital Investment Professional Compensation Survey, the seventh annual edition. Our goal is to provide the industry with the clearest and most up-to-date analysis in the market on how compensation is evolving across strategies and levels as private capital grows and matures in Asia Pacific. This year’s survey was conducted in the summer of 2020 and comes as the global economy readjusts to the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic. Responses from 242 participants are included in the survey results.

Highlights

The shares of investment professionals expecting an increase in base or bonus in 2020 were smaller than the shares who saw an increase in 2019, likely reflecting the far greater uncertainty in the global economy this year.

• Respondents at all levels except managing partner reported a steady increase in cash compensation from 2018–2020.
• Managing partners reported a slight dip in cash compensation in 2020.
• In a change from last year’s report, investment professionals at global funds (those that invest only partially in Asia Pacific) reported somewhat higher median cash compensation in 2020 than did their peers at regional funds at almost all levels of seniority.
• Professionals at venture capital firms reported the greatest variability in median compensation across levels, and managing partners at buyout funds reported the highest total median cash compensation for 2020.
• By fund size, there’s an overall upward trend in cash compensation by most recent fund size, but more variability by platform AUM.
• Compared with compensation in Greater China, compensation in some other countries is now higher, though not as consistently across levels of seniority, as we reported last year.
• Looking ahead, 48% of investment professionals expect no change or a decrease in their base compensation over the next 12 months. The share expecting improved market sentiment varies markedly by sector and geography, with those in credit/special situations and Australia most positive.

About the authors

Steven Greenberg (sgreenberg@heidrick.com) is a regional managing partner of the Financial Services Practice in Asia Pacific and the Middle East; he is based in the Tokyo office.

Todd Monti (tmonti@heidrick.com) is the global managing partner of Heidrick & Struggles’ Private Equity Practice; he is based in the New York office.

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank Mohd Arsalan for his contributions to this report.