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Firm of the Year – Large Cap
(AUM – USD 20bn and above)

Bain Capital

Bain Capital’s private equity team closed 10 deals across Asia in the 12 months ended September 2025. Large-cap activity included buyouts of York Holdings, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Nissin Corporation, and Jamco Corporation in Japan, and an agreement to acquire joint control of Manappuram Finance in India. There were also four major exits: ADK Holdings (trade sale) and Kioxia Holdings (partial exit via IPO) in Japan; Virgin Australia (partial exits via a strategic sale and an IPO); and WinTrix DC Group (sale of China operation). Bain also returned to market, seeking USD 9bn for its latest pan-Asian and Japan mid-market funds.

Blackstone

Blackstone has remained active across its core Asia markets over the past 12 months, with investments in TechnoPro and CMIC in Japan and Juno in South Korea and a merger of Quality Care and Aster DM Healthcare to create one of India’s largest hospital platforms. There have also been three significant exits, all in India or India-related: minority sales of majority positions in Essel Propack and VFS Global, and a partial exit through International Gemological Institute’s IPO. Meanwhile, Blackstone reached a first close of USD 4.4bn on its third pan-regional fund, which is expected to end up around USD 11bn.

EQT

EQT’s ninth Asia buyout fund is on track to be the region’s biggest to date: a first close of more than USD 10bn came in April 2025 and a final close at the USD 14.5bn institutional hard cap is expected in early 2026. In the past 12 months, the firm has delivered USD 16bn of liquidity out of Asia, including one of the region’s largest-ever single distributions via the Nord Anglia cross-fund transfer plus co-investment deal. More than USD 18bn was deployed across new investments, ranging from Fuji Tec in Japan to Remember in Korea to PropertyGuru in Southeast Asia.

KKR

KKR has defied volatile market conditions to return more capital to investors in the past 12 months than in the previous four years combined. In addition to the USD 2.55bn sale of Japan’s Seiyu, highlights include a full exit from India’s JB Pharma and sell-downs of Japan-based Kokusai Electric and Korea-based HD Hyundai Marine Solution. New investments followed key themes: Japan’s Fuji Soft and Topcon (digital acceleration), Dayao in China and Samhwa in Korea (Asia’s modern consumer), Healthcare Global Enterprises in India (life sciences and healthcare), and Hoken Minaoshi Hompo Group in Japan and Ascend Asia in Singapore (financial services).

PAG

PAG secured the largest-ever exit from a control investment in China this year with the USD 6.8bn sale of AirPower Technologies’ industrial gas unit. That helped the firm achieve a record-level distributions over the past 12 months through nine full and partial exits. These include the sale of a 45% stake in Australian Venue Co – locking in gains 18 months after the initial acquisition. New deals have come in India, where PAG is building a packaging products platform, and Southeast Asia, where it completed a carve-out of NashTech. The firm also reached a first close on its debut renminbi-denominated fund.