Leadership qualities that drive investment decisions, Asia’s place in global diversification, the practical realities of deploying capital in infrastructure and private markets, and the policy room available in the event of an AI-related correction formed the core of the sixth panel at the HKMA Investment Forum in Hong Kong on 4 November 2026. Moderated by Enoch Fung, Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Academy of Finance, the discussion brought together Jeffrey Perlman of Warburg Pincus, Weijian Shan of PAG, Ben Way of Macquarie Asset Management and Lei Zhang of Hillhouse Investment.
Way observed that investors look for a full package of qualities rather than any single attribute. Perlman added that the full package is rarely found and that management teams turn over in roughly half of cases.
Fung observed that Asia contributes more than 60 per cent of global GDP growth and accounts for roughly 40 per cent of global savings, yet often features less prominently in global asset allocations than these figures would suggest. Perlman argued that diversification by design (by sector, geography, vintage and number of investments) remains a core principle. He pointed to a continuing imbalance: the United States represents about 4 per cent of world population, 26 per cent of GDP and more than 70 per cent of global equity markets. Many peers, he said, have pulled back from China and Asia more broadly, reinforcing concentration in the United States and sometimes Europe. Perlman maintained that diversification did work over the past decade even if it did not always pay in the short term, and that even a modest reallocation of capital toward Asia, including China, would be significant given attractive valuations in certain markets.
On China specifically, Perlman highlighted the current low cost of leverage as advantageous for buy-out investors. He stressed the need to align with longer-term government policy, to take control positions that allow active value creation, and to target exits to strategic and domestic buyers. He added that investors increasingly prefer diversified exposure to Asian growth rather than stock-picking individual country markets.
Responding to a question about China’s position in artificial intelligence, Lei Zhang restated his view that AI is not a zero-sum contest. The prevailing demand from markets this year, he said, is to “show me the money”. Productivity gains and the application of AI across manufacturing, healthcare, services and consumer sectors now matter more than infrastructure alone. Zhang said China holds an edge in talent, resources, use cases and scale, while the rest of Asia shows a strong appetite for applications. He expressed long-term optimism that the focus on measurable results will drive wider adoption.
Obviously the U.S. is 4% of the world’s population, 26 percent of GDP, still today, 70 plus percent of global equity markets. There is a real imbalance.
Jeffrey Perlman, Warburg Pincus
Ben Way challenged the narrative that Asia suffers from a shortage of bankable infrastructure projects. Macquarie Asset Management holds 195 infrastructure portfolio companies worldwide, more than 60 of them in Asia, and has been active in the region for over 30 years. In the past two years the firm has realised more than US$25 billion of enterprise value from infrastructure exits, including roads in India, a pan-Asia data-centre business and industrial gas in Korea. Way noted that Weijian Shan’s firm completed a significant industrial-gas exit from China. He stressed that opportunities differ sharply by market: fundamental transport and energy projects predominate in developing economies, while developed markets more often involve new capacity and digital infrastructure that carries development risk. A boots-on-the-ground approach is required. The combination of AI-driven demand for data centres and the parallel need for energy solutions is creating particularly attractive deployment opportunities for managers able to secure land, power and offtake arrangements.
Weijian Shan compared the policy room available today with that of the early 2000s. He noted that the five largest United States technology companies carry substantial on- and off-balance-sheet obligations that depend on buoyant capital markets. In the event of a significant correction, he argued, the United States would have limited scope to cut interest rates or expand fiscal spending given current inflation, a budget deficit of around 6 per cent of GDP and high debt-service costs. By contrast, Asia, and China in particular, has historically responded to external shocks by redirecting domestic savings into investment, as occurred in 2009 when Chinese growth remained strong while other major economies contracted. Shan also observed that Hong Kong’s GDP growth this year is expected to exceed that of mainland China for the first time in his memory.
On Hong Kong’s role, Perlman cited recent IPO exits and a regional civil-aviation parts distributor buy-out as evidence of the city’s continuing importance for both capital markets and deal flow. Way described Hong Kong as the firm’s regional hub for talent, capital raising and connections across Asia and to the Middle East. Zhang pointed to a broad inflow of talent from mainland China and elsewhere, positioning Hong Kong as a meeting point. Shan echoed recent official comments that Hong Kong is booming.
Leadership assessment remains a central qualitative filter for private-markets capital; traits such as judgment, culture, courage and continuous learning are weighted differently by different managers but are rarely found in complete form. Second, the structural case for greater Asian exposure rests on growth contribution and savings, yet practical deployment continues to require market-by-market differentiation and, in China, alignment with policy plus control. Third, infrastructure opportunities exist and have produced realisations, but they are highly local and increasingly linked to the energy requirements of digital capacity. Fourth, comparative policy space in a potential AI-related market correction remains a live consideration for multi-asset allocators.