Nicholas Macksey: Seeking Compelling Opportunities Among Asia’s Mid-Market Companies

EQT has operated in Asia for 29 years and now has both large-cap buyout and mid-market strategies. Our focus in the mid-market section, via our BPEA Mid-Market Opportunities strategy, is designed to complement our large-cap strategy and has evolved over time. We now look most closely at the technology, services, healthcare and industrial technology sectors and seek controlling stakes in portfolio companies rather than taking minority investments.

The strategy targets companies broadly in the $300m to $500m enterprises value range. It looks across the entire Asia Pacific region, including Japan, Australia, India and Southeast Asia. The ability to invest across countries as conditions change is central to maintaining deal flow and staying active through the economic cycle.

More than capital

Control ownership allows us to offer more than capital: we can build the board, augment the management team, align incentives and execute a multi-year plan. EQT also brings global scale, from procurement relationships with major technology vendors and strong banking connections to experience across markets, which helps differentiate us from local single-country funds.

Just as important, EQT often deals directly with founders. That makes the process personal and more flexible – and there is often significant opportunity to introduce institutional systems and processes to improve business operations.

EQT looks for businesses with a strong track record of operating and financial performance that are growing well and consistently, with customers who genuinely love them. They are great businesses but often their systems and processes may not have kept pace with their growth.

Once we’ve bought a company, EQT uses a six-pillar approach to onboard and assimilate a newly acquired firm into an optimal structure that enables it to scale effectively.

• We establish resilience by checking cybersecurity and benchmarking sustainability and diversity.
• We define a plan to maximize business potential with management.
• We set monthly, quarterly and annual targets.
• We assess management bandwidth and fill capability gaps.
• We create the right incentive structure.
• We put in place a board of experienced independent directors to guide and mentor management.

Our typical holding period for an investment is four to five years. The first year focuses on validation and scaffolding, years two to four on building and delivery, and year five is laying the foundations for the next horizon of growth and delivering an exit.

This model provides structure, governance and a path to the next stage of growth. For founders, that can mean finding a good home for a business they have built. For investors, it can mean value creation that lasts beyond EQT’s ownership period.

Asia’s expanding middle class

Zooming out, Asia’s mid-market is being buoyed by an expanding middle class, a growing number of family businesses with succession obstacles that look to gain better access to capital as well as the experience, expertise and network that a global partner can bring. Our mid-market team has grown alongside this opportunity. We now have nine offices across the region and more than 300 professionals across our diversified businesses, while continuing to add investment expertise. We’re proud of our low employee turnover: the average partner tenure in Asia is 17 years and average investment committee member tenure is 22 years.

In Japan, EQT has more than 20 investment professionals on the ground and we have had a presence in Tokyo for 20 years. One of the region’s most mature markets, Japan has almost 4,000 listed companies across the large-cap and mid-market sectors and more than $1tn of market capitalization. Japan is interesting right now because the government is making a major effort to unlock productivity in an aging economy.

India, where EQT has also had a presence for 20 years, is another compelling market for us. Many millions of people are joining India’s middle class each year, creating enormous demand for healthcare, education, consumption and financial services.

The playbook in action

Two examples illustrate our Asian investment approach. HRBrain, a Japan-based talent management and employee engagement company, offers software that simplifies employee performance evaluation and talent development. EQT took a majority stake in 2023 with the founder retaining a significant minority stake. We brought in a new head of sales and chief financial officer and deepened the company’s business connections. The business now offers broader talent management, employee experience and organizational assessment tools, alongside labor management, AI ChatBot and 360 Reviews. The result has been stronger systems, a larger order book and more consistent growth.

Compass Education, an Australia provider of school information and management software, is another example. Our investment strategy in the Asia Pacific region involves “mining the vein”, where we follow one successful investment with another in the same – or an adjacent – sector.

Because we have more than 20 years of investing in Asian education businesses through – for example – our partnership with Nord Anglia Education, we know what success looks like. Our experience in K-12 schools and deep understanding of the primary and secondary education market was critical in building trust with Compass’s founder.

Since we completed our investment in Compass Education in early 2025, the company has strengthened management and completed bolt-on acquisitions that expanded the product set into extracurricular activities, school sports management, music lesson management and parent communication tools.

HRBrain and Compass Education illustrate the goals of the mid-market playbook: buy a business with existing market traction, bring structure and resources, and expand the opportunity rather than simply waiting for the market to do the work.

We believe that what makes this strategy stand out is not just size, but fit. In my experience, founders want a partner who understands the business, respects its legacy and can help carry it into its next phase. That is where EQT’s mid-market strategy sits: large enough to matter, small enough to stay hands-on, and flexible enough to move between markets as the region changes.