Several years ago, alternative assets were little more than an afterthought in Thailand — a satellite slice of a wealthy investor’s portfolio added for flavour rather than foundation.
Today, that paradigm has shifted dramatically. For a growing tier of wealthy Thai investors, private assets have transformed into a strategic allocation.
Triphon Phumiwasana, chief investment officer at K WEALTH at Kasikornbank (KBank), believes alternative allocations could account for 20% of investable wealth or more depending on risk tolerance, time horizon, and liquidity profile. K WEALTH is KBank’s wealth management arm.
“The key change is not only the percentage. Clients now think more carefully about the composition of that allocation across private equity, credit, infrastructure and different fund structures,” Phumiwasana told Asian Private Banker in an email interview.
KBank is not alone in driving alternative penetration. Local industry player Kiatnakin Phatra Securities (KKPS), for example, has previously said that its early entry into private markets is now paying off.
Rather than focusing on the number of funds, Phumiwasana looks to the ability to connect product selection, portfolio advice and client advisory into one coherent proposition. He believes the broader KBank ecosystem “can provide access to market knowledge, local and regional networks, and on-the-ground perspectives that go beyond the fund document.”
“Our objective is not to make private markets sound exciting. It is to ensure that clients understand why they own them throughout the full investment cycle,” he added.
For Thailand’s private banks, rising private market adoption could signify a crucial shift from transaction-driven product selling to long-term, institutional-style portfolio management.
As clients move beyond initial discovery toward reinvestments and fresh allocations, winning market share will no longer depend on simply opening doors to exclusive funds, but on guiding investors through the full lifecycle of their holdings.
“The next phase of private markets in Thailand will not be defined simply by access alone. It will be defined by selection, structure, transparency and the quality of advice throughout the investment lifecycle,” said Phumiwasana.
From closed-ended to broader private assets platform
KBank began building its private market proposition in 2019 when the priorities at the time were access and education.
However, the proposition has evolved from what started as selected closed-ended private equity fund offerings into a broader private assets platform covering private equity, private credit, infrastructure, and selected real estate strategies, with both closed-ended and semi-liquid structures available to clients.
Currently, the investment advisory team includes four senior specialists and two specialists across investment strategy, product solutions, private assets and client advisory. The team works alongside the bank’s relationship managers and specialists across the wider KBank Group.
“We first train specialists on the underlying asset, not merely the sales presentation. This includes manager due diligence, portfolio construction, fund mechanics, cash-flow patterns, valuation, liquidity terms and downside scenarios. We also work with global managers and partners on specialist sessions covering manager selection and private market portfolio construction,” said Phumiwasana.
Client education, he added, must remain accessible yet rigorous, spanning regular portfolio updates, direct manager interactions, and on-site visits that extend beyond the initial sale, helping investors to better understand liquidity conditions, valuation shifts and distribution timelines.
Focus shifts to infrastructure income, PE secondaries in H1
For the first half of 2026, income-oriented alternatives continued to receive client attention, particularly diversified private infrastructure strategies. Within infrastructure, clients have shown interest in long-duration assets supported by contracted or recurring revenues, as well as exposure to structural investment themes such as digital infrastructure and the rising demand for energy, Phumiwasana shared.
For private equity, interest has turned more selective, with greater attention on secondaries, seasoned portfolios and structures that may reduce blind-pool risk and mitigate the initial J-curve, he observed.
This shift in preference highlights how Thai private wealth clients are developing a much sharper lens toward cash-flow predictability and risk-adjusted positioning across their alternative holdings.
“This is not a broad move into every alternative strategy. Clients are making more deliberate distinctions between income, growth, liquidity and duration, and are increasingly considering how each strategy fits within the overall portfolio,” he said.
Phumiwasana and his team are now looking at selected private equity secondaries, differentiated regional opportunities and strategies that can improve diversification or cash-flow characteristics for the second-half product onboarding pipeline.
He confirmed that KBank is launching a China-focused innovation private equity strategy in partnership with Kasikorn Vision (Shanghai). The fund, which targets an offering window from August through September 2026, will concentrate primarily on secondaries alongside selective direct investments.
“We are also studying liquid and semi-liquid alternatives that can complement, rather than duplicate, existing private credit exposure. Across the shelf, we expect less emphasis on strategies that rely heavily on financial leverage, aggressive valuation assumptions or a liquidity promise that is not well aligned with the underlying assets. The principle is straightforward: we do not need more products; we need better building blocks,” he said.