Good morning, thank you all for joining the webcast. We are very excited to announce the next step in EQT's strategic journey, creating a scaled platform in Asia. I'm thrilled to be here with Christian, Caspar, Kim, and we have the pleasure of being joined by Jean-Eric Salata, founder and CEO of BPEA. Today, we will tell you how this combination makes both platforms even stronger. There'll be a Q&A after the presentation, and in order to ask questions, you will need to be dialed into the conference line. With that, I'll hand it over to you, Christian.
Thank you, Rudolf, and good morning from me as well. It's great to be here together with Jean and the team. As you've seen together, we're creating a world leader in active ownership. For the past 25 years or so, our two firms have been growing in parallel. Yes, in different continents, but actually very similar in being multicultural and decentralized. Our two firms are really based on quite similar values and have a laser focus on value creation and performance for our clients. The combination is a great strategic fit and mutually reinforcing for both firms, and I actually believe the combination accelerates our two platforms by maybe 10 years. For EQT, we are becoming a leader in Asia and a scaled player globally in active ownership strategies. For BPEA, they're accessing leading future-proofing capabilities with EQT.
I am deeply impressed with what Jean and his team have achieved over the past quarter-century, and we're super excited, as you can hear, about our partnership. With that, let me hand over to Jean for a quick introduction.
Thank you, Christian. I'm really glad to be here today and really enthusiastic about what we're talking about and what we're thinking of doing here, combining the businesses together. The strategic fit between our businesses is perfect. There's very little overlap between what we do in Asia today versus what you do in the rest of the world. The strategic combination is perfect. The cultural fit is really exceptional. As you said, what we're looking to do is to create a global leader by tapping into all the resources that EQT brings in areas like the global thematic sector expertise, in areas like Motherbrain and technology and analytics, and helping companies digitally transform.
Of course, in areas like sustainability, which is an area where EQT is really a global leader, and I think we can benefit a lot in raising the standards in Asia in our investment program. Great to see this combination happening now, and we couldn't be more excited about it.
Thanks, Jean. Let me kick off the rest of the presentation here by taking a little bit of a step back and talking a bit about why Asia is so strategic for us. As you know, we've been focused on building EQT's presence in Asia for quite some time. We've hired teams, we've opened offices, we made a number of investments across the region. And over time, we've delivered quite good returns for our clients and investors. However, we've been also patient in trying to find what is the best solution for EQT long-term and how do we really scale, because we have been quite small in Asia, as you know. With BPEA, we have this unique opportunity to take a leap forward.
Just like we did a year and a half ago or so with Ward and the Exeter team in real estate, you know, we're replicating that type of transaction today, a combination with Exeter, which is working out extremely well for both firms and also had this unique cultural fit that we talked about. Now, of course, right now, these are uncertain times when it comes to macro and geopolitical aspects, but we're quite confident that Asia will continue to pace global growth for many decades. Right now, the region represents more than 40% of global GDP growth and has ample investment opportunities and growing investment opportunities in all the thematic sectors that EQT and BPEA are investing in.
Now, being scaled and really, truly, local with local players in Asia is also gonna make us a smarter investor and owner. Not just in the sense that we're seeing strong growth and great thematic investment opportunities, but the region has, for example, extremely quick digital adoption and deep regional insights will help us, and you know, and this new combination really strengthen our active ownership strategy and find highly attractive investment opportunities and to create more value for our clients. We also are totally confident that we could not find a better partner to navigate the Asian and Australian markets than Jean and his team. Next slide, please. The private equity market is developing quickly in Asia. Here we go.
Growth is nearly 2x the global market, so it's growing almost twice as fast as the rest of the private equity market. The scaled players like EQT and BPEA together are taking, just like the rest of the world, an outsized share of the growth and an outsized share of the capital coming from our clients. With this combined platform, we can manage both of those in a super way. As this market develops, we are gonna be part of shaping the future of private markets in the region, and our goal is to become the clear leader.
I'm sure I know that the EQT toolbox will help, together with locals and the super strong track record that we have from BPEA really help us make a positive impact also at scale in Asia, which we think is a differentiator and a great opportunity. On the client side, Asia is an area where most clients are underrepresented and under-allocated, so they're looking to deploy more capital in Asia. We see that in the super success that Jean and his team have in their fundraisings. Come back to that in a few minutes. With this combination, we're actually gonna be providing a pretty unique set of strategies for our investors, all based on active ownership.
It will have over time the whole palette in private capital from ventures to growth, to private equity, to EQT Future, infrastructure and EQT Active Core Infrastructure, and all the real estate strategies. For our clients, we're gonna be what we believe is even more attractive for the long- term. Next slide, please. Now, interestingly, we've known each other for quite a long time, BPEA and EQT, and many of our individuals. We began discussing this opportunity to combine and become one team last year. Quickly, the more we discussed, the more we got to know each other on a broader base, and the more we realized this would be a great fit.
In some ways it actually feels like we're two, you know, kinda long-lost siblings that have grown up in different parts of the world and found each other, and that's really the momentum that we are having now in this combination. Now, EQT's criteria for any combination has always been very clear. The cultural fit is number one. Performance track record is also incredibly important, and BPA has delivered 25% net IRR over the past two funds, which is exceptional. Of course, the strategic fit has to make sense for our also for our clients. With BPA, we found all these elements, just like we did with Exeter and also LSP. Now, I particularly like the fact that BPA, similar to EQT, has a strong learning culture. We continuously develop and learn from our mistakes.
We dare to make mistakes and become better from that. That's really the only way we believe to stay ahead of the curve, and to try new innovative, you know, tools and actions like developing Motherbrain AI. As we say, you know, everything can always be improved everywhere at all times. That goes actually for both firms, even though the language might be slightly different. Like BPEA, based on a strong performance for its clients, they're also on a strong growth path, and are highly profitable and successful. A material AUM uplift this year, along with a strong carry trajectory over time, is really gonna result in a step change in BPEA's earnings over the next couple of years, and you'll see that also from the trends.
As a result, this combination will be immediately accretive, and we're creating full alignment with the BPEA team who are becoming very material shareholders at EQT, which we think is great. Now, Kim will come back to more details on the financials and outlook, and you'll see that, the profiles of these two companies that we have here are very similar. With that, I'll hand back over to Jean to share a bit more about his great firm.
Thanks, Chris. Can we just go to the next slide? Great. We've been building our business over the last 25 years. We're in our 25th year now. You know, we started off really country by country building a regional platform, and we now have one of the largest scale platforms in the region. We've made over 100 investments in our history, and our AUM is about $20 billion. We've always taken the approach, much like EQT, of having to have local capabilities in local markets, but combining that with a regional thematic approach to origination from a top-down sector standpoint, and also a regional approach to diligence, quality control, and the way we think about value creation.
The other aspect of our business is that we believe it's very important to be diversified, both by sector, but also importantly geographically. We have quite a broad geographical reach, that's operating at scale, and we combine the best of what each country and sector has to offer in a diversified portfolio that covers the entire region. For example, India, which is our largest exposure market at the moment, is a market where we're very heavily invested in the technology services and software sector, which is a globally competitive industry that's benefiting from the growth in digitalization and the move to the cloud. These are some of the thematics that we're working on penetrating within the region.
Combining that with the sector insights that EQT brings and the truly global scale that we'll have, it'll make us that much more competitive and enable us to deliver those superior returns that we aim to deliver for our clients. Next slide, please. As far as the path forward and how we're thinking about the combined business going forward, we have a very strong platform today which is scaling. If you look at our historical AUM growth, we scale our flagship funds by about 60% each time we come to market historically. Our current fundraising is progressing extremely well. Our track record that we're building on is very solid, as Chris alluded to earlier.
Going forward, we want to continue to scale our flagship funds, but in addition to that, part of the logic and the rationale for this combination is really to enable us to expand our products to offer our clients more opportunity to invest in the region beyond just a single flagship fund. We're gonna be introducing adjacent strategies that are similar to what EQT is doing in Europe and the rest of the world, in areas like growth capital, for example. We're also looking at public value and other strategies in the long -term. The idea is to really scale the platform that we have today and build incremental value by combining what we do well with what EQT brings to the table here in this combination. Chris?
Thank you, Jean. Next slide, please, then. From a structural point of view and an organizational point of view, Jean is gonna be heading up BPE Asia, running all the private capital strategies in that region. Per will be running private capital in North America and Europe as he's doing today.
These two private capital businesses will, of course, be closely connected in all ways, from thematic investing to our House of Value Creation through the sector teams, importantly, which now really become truly global and even more powerful, across digitalization and with Motherbrain, and of course, also in our purpose journey, regarding, you know, how we continue to be a leader in investing in sustainability and driving value creation with those themes. All this we're of course doing because we believe actually this will help us create even better performance for the long -term across the globe for our clients.
Now, on the real asset side, EQT Infrastructure, of course, is gonna also be able to leverage BPEA's strong local footprint to drive more deal flow and also, we believe, bring in more capital from our clients and their desire for allocations to Asia. On the real estate side, EQT Exeter is gonna team up with BPEA's real estate team in developing both non-logistic sectors as well as strengthening the logistics investment capabilities in the region. That business will be a part of EQT Exeter and will be led by Ward and, of course, will then help drive that continued superb performance that we have in our real estate business. All these three areas will slowly but surely become truly global.
Now, the central functions and the capital raising teams will be integrated into one global team, which is great. If you think about all these elements and one of the reasons we're also very positive about this combination is that that means that there are great growth opportunities for all employees in this combined EQT and BPEA business. Next slide, please. Now, on the fundraising and client side, BPEA has had very strong success in their fundraising efforts, and working in a very sharp team led by Tom and having a strong track record, as we mentioned.
At EQT, we've invested a lot into our capital raising capabilities globally, and together these two organizations will become one and will be, of course, going much deeper and broader than we could separately. BPEA today has around 300 clients, and of these, approximately 115 are clients that have recently invested in BPEA and are currently not invested in EQT products. Really, a very attractive incremental opportunity. Of course, vice versa with our 700 clients. Now, we also believe we're gonna leverage each other's know-how and networks on the client side, and giving this opportunity, as you've heard from Jean and myself, to invest across asset classes, in you know, the key geographies of the world.
In fact, I think we're covering about 80% of global GDP with our investment strategies when this combination is completed. We are expecting our clients to be positive to the combination of our two firms, and of course, we're speaking to them in parallel, and we think the complementarity is quite natural and positive. Those are a lot of the strategic merits and the merits for our clients and for our investment performance and for our people. Now I'm gonna hand over to Kim, who will talk more about the financial merits of the transaction. Kim?
Thank you, Chris. Great to be here presenting the combination together with Jean. Next slide, please. You heard a little bit earlier here about BPEA's strong investment performance, and you can see here the current gross MOICs for the latest funds. Exits have started, but there's considerable amounts of value left to be realized. In addition to strong performance, BPEA also have a strong fundraising track record. They have consistently grown their funds in each fund cycle. This has been done while maintaining a stable and strong fee margin. Due to the fundraising rules, we're very restricted on what we can say about Fund Eight. However, as you heard from Jean, BPEA have grown fund sizes by approximately 60% between fund generations, and we expect that trajectory to hold.
Including the current fundraising, we expect the total AUM to be approximately EUR 20 billion by the end of 2022. Next slide, please. BPEA's strong performance and fundraising capabilities have also translated into an impressive financial trajectory. For 2021, the revenues totaled EUR 309 million. Management fees were approximately EUR 236 million. This only reflected a small part of fund number eight as the first fee date was in late September 2021. In 2022, you will see a full- year effect from that fund, including catch-up fees on the remaining commitments raised in the current year. As a result of this, we expect management fees from BPEA to be approximately EUR 350 million-EUR 375 million in 2022.
Moving over to carried interest and investment income. The EUR 73 million reflects EQT AB's right to carried interest in fund number six. A fund which started recognizing carried interest in 2021. The combination entails that EQT has the right to 25% of fund number six and 35% of fund number seven, both of which are performing well and are on track for carry recognition in the coming years. BPEA's EBITDA in 2021 was EUR 206 million, which translates into an EBITDA margin of 67%. As you can see, the BPEA's profitability is very much in line with EQT's, and together we will be looking to expand the offering further as you just heard. Next slide, please. Jumping into some more detail around the transaction.
The combination entails 100% of BPEA and EQT being entitled then to 35% of carry from all coming funds. As mentioned, it also entails then 25% of carry in fund number six and 35% in fund number seven. Approximately 80% of the transaction is paid in equity to BPEA's existing shareholders, which predominantly consists of the management team. This strongly aligns our incentives and for our future value creation together. The cash consideration is $1.6 billion, which translates into approximately EUR 1.5 billion then.
In terms of financing of the cash consideration, I can mention that at year-end 2021, we had approximately EUR 588 million of cash on the balance sheet, and since then, we have received management fees for H1, and prior to closing, we will have received management fees also for H2. In addition to that cash at hand, we have bridge financing in place for a billion, and in addition to that, we have our existing EUR 1 billion revolving credit facility, so we are well capitalized. We expect closing to be in Q4 of the current year. When arriving at the consideration page, we have factored in the building blocks for 2022 that I just provided here earlier, and also naturally, the expected future development.
Looking at the one year forward multiple at closing, such multiple is in the mid-teens approximately. As Chris mentioned, the transaction is expected to be immediately high single-digit accretive to EQT's EPS. Handing back to you, Chris.
Thank you, Kim. Next slide, please. With BPEA, as you heard, we're creating a world leader in active ownership strategies. The combination is not about building AUM, this is about performance. I like to say that our firms are performance chasers, we're not AUM chasers. Being local with locals across all these markets, representing nearly 80% of global GDP, means that we really will have deep insights into all major regions, our key sectors and themes across the globe. With this broad set of strategies, I think we're uniquely positioned to drive performance for our clients, and we're gonna continue to develop with this scale that we have, which is fantastic. We're gonna continue to be able to develop innovative new ways to create value and stay ahead of the curve.
Building out Motherbrain, building out EQT Digital, sustainable transformation, and actually complementing and structuring even better our global advisory network. All these are really key aspects with the value creation toolbox that we use together in creating value. Now, as you heard from Jean and myself, we're gonna continue to grow our strategies across the regions, themes and sectors and ownership horizons, and we'll be able to support companies over time across the globe from venture to mature businesses. Next slide, please. Now, before turning to the Q&A, let me also reflect a little bit on the current market and the current situation that we're in. This of course is a time of geopolitical issues. The situation in Ukraine is quite tragic, and sad, and our hearts are with the Ukrainian people.
Our companies are actually providing various forms of humanitarian support to Ukraine. Fortunately, for BPEA and for EQT, neither of our firms have any material exposure to the region, neither from the investor side nor from the portfolio company side. More broadly, on the macro front, there are, of course, now higher energy prices. There's some cost inflation, there's some movement in interest rates. We of course deliberate and discuss these issues in our investment committees and between the two firms, and how it can affect us over time. As a group, we're gonna be even more diversified across the globe and across sectors. We think that's actually a real strength in addition to all the capabilities that we're getting to become an even sharper and stronger investor.
Both EQT and BPEA have strong, resilient investments. We're thematic in the way that we allocate our capital. We're confident that both our teams and our companies are well-positioned to manage any turmoil that might arise. More specifically, with thematic investing, we are in long-term sectors that are driven by secular trends. These trends are trends that are not connected directly to the economic cycle, like demographics, like regulatory trends, like digitalization, sustainability, healthcare, and those kinds of deeper long-term trends. You know, we believe that the companies that we're investing in can handle challenges in a good way. They have typically very strong market positions, low customer concentration, essential services.
We've actually done a deep study across all the portfolio companies of our pricing power in these companies if inflation rises, and it is quite strong, the pricing power that is. I think if you wanna see an example, you could look at how EQT's portfolio performed through the recent pandemic, which is not totally over yet, as you know. Seeing the performance, you see also how we handle crises and how we invest and manage our companies through those. Overall, we take a long-term view. We are really building the best EQT globally that we can, and EQT BPEA Asia to the benefit of our clients.
I'm convinced, and we're convinced that our ownership model really works across all these sectors and geographies, and I believe we have an important role to play in Asia and globally in driving our companies to become more sustainable and also to invest in solutions for both climate and society, which are trends that are just gonna be accelerated after this current crisis that we all need to get through. We believe we found the perfect fit teaming up with Jean and his gang. With that's the presentation. We're now gonna turn to Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please dial 01 on your telephone keypads now to enter the queue. Once your name is announced, you can ask your question. If you find it's answered before it's your turn to speak, you can dial 02 to cancel. Our first question comes from the line of Magnus Andersson from ABG. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good morning, and thank you for making it interesting. First, on a strategic note, this is your third acquisition since you were listed in the autumn of 2019. Of those, there are two larger ones. Obviously this and Exeter, and then you made LSP. This was obviously part of your strategy when you listed. Now when you made two larger acquisitions here, how should we look at this going forward? Do you still feel you have any holes in your strategy to fill or any larger holes, or should we more expect kind of the smaller add-ons like with LSP? Does this change anything in that regard?
I think it's just a really good question. As we talked about before, you know, we had the white space that we wanted to fill in geographically, and in certain sectors. This of course is filling in the biggest white gap that we had. If I may answer it this way, you know, we are gonna spend a lot of time making sure that this combination becomes really successful, and that we get all the benefits out of it, and that we can launch some of the new products that we've talked about organically and step-by-step for our clients.
I guess another way to say that is yes, you know, we're not expecting to to do any other larger acquisitions at this point in time or in the near future, but rather make sure that all these really interesting strategic moves that we've done over the past couple of years truly become successful.
Okay. Thank you. Then also on the strategic side, when I look at the portfolio of BPEA, are they also TMT tilted like you are in terms of their investment profile?
I'll let Jean answer that, actually.
Sure. I can take that, Chris. Thanks.
We have a very similar thematic approach to EQT in the sectors that we focus on. As Chris mentioned, what we're looking to do is really a couple things. One is identify long-term structural growth trends in the region, and two of the biggest structural growth trends in the region relate to technology and software and healthcare. That represents probably 60% or more, maybe 70% of what we do. The second thing we look to do is to buy companies that are, A, in the right sector, but, B, that we transform value through our ownership.
When we're buying companies, not just to buy the right company at the right price in the right sector, we do that, we try to do that, but we're also making sure that no matter what's happening in the external environment, we're gonna also leave the company better off than it was when we found it and we invested in it by really building the value in the business through better management, through better operations, through better go-to-market strategies, through more digital and through more sustainability and ESG. I think that both the structural tailwinds of the sectors that we're investing in, combined with the transformation work that we're doing, is really what's powering the returns in our portfolio through good times and bad, hopefully, regardless of what's happening in the cycle or the external environment.
Okay. Thank you. Finally, just on the more financial side, when I look at your page three there in the press releases, it looks like the fee management fee level, if I take the EUR 20 billion you expect and add the EUR 350 million-EUR 375 million in management fees, it looks like the fee is higher than your 1.4%, closer to 1.8%-1.9%. Is that partly related to any catch-up fees or anything like that? Or is the fee level higher? Secondly, also on carried interest, if I understand you correctly, you immediately get a carried interest addition with this acquisition from when you consolidate it.
Yep. Kim?
Yes. You are correct. The fee level in BPEA is higher than the blended fee level at EQT. It's in the region of 1.75.
Okay.
Secondly, when it comes to carried interest, yes, you're also right. i.e., there was accounting carried interest already in 2021 from the perimeter that we are combining with EQT. Yes, you're right. Then obviously carry is always a function of good exits and good performance in the funds. So far so good.
You said you have to be careful about when you talk about future fundraising. I guess you can't say anything about whether there is anything in the pipeline for 2023 there beyond the EUR 20 bilion.
No.
Though I guess what we should be able to say is that there are two other, you know, in addition to the flagship private equity fund, which is soon being finalized by Jean and his team, you know, there are two other strategies that are active. One is growth, and the other is in real estate.
Yeah.
you know, in due course, we'll inform more deeply about those as the actions are taken.
Yeah, about the size, I guess.
Yes, of course. Now you can see.
Yeah.
In the press release, you can see the current size of those two businesses for now.
Yeah.
We're not going to be able to talk, you know, a lot more about the future development there, unfortunately.
Okay. Thank you very much. That's all for me.
Thank you.
Thanks.
The next question comes from the line of [Greg Campbell] from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, everybody, and congratulations on the transaction. A couple of questions. Firstly, in terms of the EPS accretion, what are the sort of just high-level assumptions? Is there any sort of cost synergies or revenue synergies that have been factored into those numbers? That's sort of just the first one, just getting a bit of color around the accretion. Secondly, in terms of the lockups, I understand there's some lockups which will be similar to the EQT senior partners. Could you just remind us what the lockup is for the senior partners, obviously, and the new shareholders?
Finally, just in terms of the companies that BPEA looks at, you know, do you look at mainly growth companies, or, do you also look at sort of more startup-type, businesses as well? Just sort of the nature of the companies that you invest in. Thank you.
Thank you. Kim will take the first one, Caspar the second, and Jean the third.
Well distributed there. Thanks, Chris.
There we go.
This is obvious from the presentation that the transaction is not at all about cost savings. That's not what this is about. It's a strategic transaction that makes a lot of sense. As you saw also, the financial merits are there. There are no material cost savings factored into any of the forecasts. What we have done is sort of a common business plan and assumptions around the new initiatives that both Chris and Jean mentioned here, accelerating some of those, such as the growth part of the business, for example.
On the question number two on lockups, I have to admit, I don't have exactly in my head, but in. So basically, we changed the whole lockup structure with the release that we did in September 2021. That is basically the next release of lockups will be in September 2023. Then there will be releases up until the final release is gonna be in September 2028. That's how it looks like. In fairly equal releases from 2023.
Mm-hmm.
I don't have the exact numbers in my head.
Yeah. They're exactly parallel between, you know, Jean and his team that are becoming shareholders. They're exactly the same.
Yeah.
It's just to add, it's 10% in 2023 and then equal installments then.
Yeah, it's 10%.
For the senior management.
It's 10% of what used to be a 100% half year ago. Yeah.
Good. Okay, thank you. Jean, will you comment on the next one?
Great. Yeah. By the way, on the lockup point, I mean, we're taking a very long-term perspective on this. This is really about combining two businesses together to create a global leader. We're taking the long-term view here as to the value creation that's gonna happen post-transaction on our substantial shareholding in EQT. On the point about the kinds of companies that we invest in, 85% of our strategy is buyout focused. If you look at our portfolio, you know, 85%-90% of what we do would be in control stakes in large to mid-cap type companies where we have a pretty established business cash flow positive profile and significant growth. It's a growth-oriented buyout strategy of mid to large-cap companies, is the way I would describe it.
The balance of what we do is more growth-oriented investments, which are, you know, more growth rather than venture. We don't really do early stage type investing, per se. As Chris alluded to, the idea is going forward, we're probably gonna have a really focused effort on expanding the growth component of what we do, but in a separate strategy with a separate fund.
Thank you.
Thanks, Greg.
The next question comes from the line of Hubert Lam from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Good morning. Just one question. Can you talk about the cost growth in BPEA, what's it been like in the past, and what your expectations are in the future, just given inflation, competition in Asia, and whether or not you require any step change in terms of investment in the platform to expand it and to grow further scale. Thank you.
I meant to let Jean talk about BPEA, but from my perspective and what we've found with this firm is that, as you can tell, this is a very high performing platform. We're really building on something that's already really strong and complementary. Jean?
Yeah. We've been very focused on growing profitably. If you look at our margins, which have been reported in the release, and maybe I don't wanna get into Kim's area here, but you know, our margins historically have gone from you know 57% in 2020 to 67% in 2021 as we've grown the business. The point is that there's tremendous amount of operating leverage in our business as we scale and as we're growing the fund sizes now, the compounding effect of growth rates of you know 50%-60% historical growth rate in our fund sizes. As you compound that kind of percentage growth on a much larger base, the amount that falls to the bottom line is pretty significant.
I think to answer your question, you know, although we'll continue doing the cost base of our business, I expect our revenue growth to grow at or even faster than our costs grow over time. I'll also hand that back to Kim just to make sure I'm answering that correctly from your perspective.
I think that that's a.
Yeah.
That's a fair description of your business. Thank you.
Yeah.
Just like EQT, you know, these, you know, the capabilities, hiring, you know, hiring and developing talent to be able to drive the new strategies, to handle more portfolio companies, et cetera, of course we'll be continuing to invest in that.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
Just as a reminder, if you do wish to ask a question, please dial zero one on your telephone keypads now. Our next question comes from the line of Tom Mills from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Oh, good morning, guys, and congratulations on the deal. I just had a couple of questions, please. Firstly, I may have missed it, but did you say on the carried interest mechanism for BPEA, is that a European waterfall or a American waterfall? Secondly, I guess there's some expectation that Asia will be perhaps the strongest region for retail and wealth growth opportunity. Does that kind of accelerate your ambitions in terms of distribution in that space from doing this deal? Thank you.
Thank you. When it comes to the second question, and Kim can answer the first one, you know, I believe actually that this combination, you know, of course, it strengthens our brand, it strengthens our capabilities to clients. Private wealth investing, you know, into private equity in Asia has been, I'd say for now, relatively small, but it's a really great opportunity with the combination of these two brands and.
These unique investment opportunities that we bring, we believe that channel will grow significantly as we're seeing now in the EQT funds as well.
Yes.
Might....
It's European waterfalls. As you know, from an accounting perspective, we are also. It's also booked always as a sort of whole fund, whole fund carry, the way we do it and BPEA does it the same way.
Yeah. Maybe if I could just add.
Great, helpful. Thank you.
If I could just add to the point about the distribution and brand here and the growth of the demand for private equity in the region as a whole. I think what was highlighted in Chris' presentation, just to reiterate it, I think it's a key point is that that asset class in Asia is growing at about twice the rate as it's growing in the rest of the world. The region's private markets are under-penetrated.
If you talk to investors, whether they're institutional or high net worth, there's an increasing amount of allocation happening to the region, so that's why the growth rate is sort of double, the annual growth rate in assets under management for Asian alternative managers is probably double what it is in the rest of the world, you know, in the high twenties CAGR, as a result of that demand. I think if you have a brand. Our brand is relatively well-known in Asia. The BPEA, we've been around for 25 years, and we've raised a lot of capital through the channels there. Combined with EQT, the joint brand, I think will have tremendous appeal to that channel of distribution going forward in the region.
As you probably all know that the most wealth creation in the world is happening in Asia in terms of the entrepreneurs and just the consumer class. The potential, I think, to tap into that is significant.
Thank you very much.
As there are no further questions, I'll hand it back to the speakers.
Okay. Thank you, everyone for participating today. Thank you for the strong and good questions. As you heard, we're really excited about this combination. We think it's a super strategic fit. It gives real benefits to our clients. It will help us strengthen our investment performance across the world, and it gives a lot of exciting opportunities for all of our colleagues and talents around the world to, you know, continue to have exciting career opportunities. We're excited about it, and we look forward to informing you more as we get closer to closing. Thanks very much, and have a great day.