This is a sponsored article from BlackRock.

What started as a trickle has turned into a flow, with the current forging towards alternative investments swelling in volume and velocity in recent years as investors seek diversification in a particularly volatile global economic environment.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager¹ with more than 30 years of expertise in alternatives investing, has closely charted the rising tide of the asset class. According to recent Preqin data, the alternative investment industry is expected to grow by 40% from the current US$10 trillion to US$14 trillion by 2023 globally². In fact, global pensions have increased their exposure to the asset class from 4% in 1997 to 24% within two decades³.

That upward trend has influenced all investor segments, including high net worth individuals.

Charting an alternative course
A number of CEOs of private banks in Asia recently told Asian Private Banker that alternative investments are constantly becoming a preference among the region’s wealthy who want to diversify their portfolios using uncorrelated assets. Private equity and real estate are proving particularly popular amid a maturing investor segment.

Institutions are also moving decisively out of equities and into alternatives — led by investments in real assets, private equity, and real estate. Indeed, over the longer term, studies indicate that more than 50% of institutional investors intend to increase exposure to private debt, infrastructure, and private equity, while 32% intend to allocate more to real estate.⁴

Avoiding choppy waters
Alternatives have become more prominent since 2016 against a backdrop of interest rate rises, monetary tightening, and increased market volatility, which has made investors focus on building increasingly well-diversified portfolios.

Alternative strategies have become accessible to a broad range of investors, not just ultra high net worth individuals and large institutions. Alternative investments can be an integral part of nearly every investor’s portfolio and are most effectively deployed as a complementary element of a traditional portfolio, seeking to deliver valuable diversification and provide a cushion against market volatility — for example, helping reduce a portfolio’s interest rate risk — while improving its overall risk-return profile and income.

The considerable maturation of the alternatives market in recent years has led to a significant broadening of options for investors, giving clients greater opportunity to achieve portfolio diversification and enhance returns using public and private market strategies. These include:

• Hedge funds: pools of investment capital with the flexibility to employ a vast range of trading strategies to seek out market inefficiencies and focus on idiosyncratic risk to generate absolute returns irrespective of market conditions. Depending on the structure, they can have varying liquidity profiles.
• Private equity: involves direct investment in private companies or buyouts of public companies, and can provide a spectrum of opportunity by spanning all stages of a company’s life cycle — including venture capital, growth periods, buyout and restructuring.
• Private credit: offers a yield premium over traditional credit due to illiquidity or complexity.
• Real assets: such as real estate and infrastructure, can be a strong generator of immediate cash flow and offer the potential for growth and capital gains.

These strategies can be used to achieve various desired outcomes as shown below⁵:

Figuring out the right mix of alternative investments is a challenge for all investors. Which type of alternative investments deserve a spot in the portfolio largely comes down to risk appetite. Investors should also carefully consider their investment objectives when deciding which alternatives strategy to employ. Other factors to consider include the desired liquidity of their holdings, return characteristics and structure of the investment, and crucially, the ability of the investment manager to add significant value to their portfolio over time.

A rising tide of investment options
The flow towards alternatives has seen a sea change in attitudes among Asian investors, drawing them away from the once-considered-safer waters of traditional investments into more diversified portfolios that can steer an alternative course beyond the riptides of a turbulent global economy.

The global reach of BlackRock provides access to opportunities that may not be available to other asset managers and offers valuable investment insight into these asset classes.

BlackRock has more than 750 alternatives specialists spanning more than 25 global locations⁶ and provides clients with one-stop-shop access to the sector, offering investors strong sourcing, differentiated performance, and a greater breadth of solutions at a time when alternative investments are reshaping investment horizons at an unprecedented rate.

To find out more about alternative investing and how BlackRock can help you navigate the alternative investment universe:

For Hong Kong readers, click here.

For Singapore readers, click here.

Later in this series, BlackRock will discuss uncovering alpha using public market strategies as well as why investors should increase exposure to private credit over traditional asset classes.

This is a sponsored article from BlackRock.