Driving Transformational Change in Finance | Global Investors' Symposium Hong Kong 2025

Panelist Profiles & Mandates

• Kevin Liu (Moderator): Chairman of Asia and Global Executive Board member at Partners Group (European PE firm), managing ~$150B AUM from Singapore.
• Tim: CEO/CIO of Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System (PMRS), a public pension plan with over 104% funding status.
• Mark: Head of Strategy and Risk Management at Mubadala (UAE sovereign wealth fund), managing >$300B AUM.
• Shared Strategy: All three firms prioritize long-term investment horizons (10+ years) and private markets exposure, bypassing daily mark-to-market volatility.

Long-Term Investment Frameworks

• PMRS (Tim): Defines the horizon as 10 years; 90% of returns are driven by top-down portfolio theory and diversification rather than bottom-up deal selection.
• Mubadala (Mark): Aligns portfolio construction with four macro "D" trends: Disruptive Technologies (AI, semiconductors), Demographics (aging population), Decarbonization (renewables, water), and Deglobalization (supply chain shifts).
• Mubadala Investment Mix: Operates via three strategies: Fund investments (GPs), Direct equity stakes, and a homegrown GP strategy focused on private equity and AI.
• Partners Group: Manages four private market asset classes (PE, Infrastructure, Credit, Real Estate) and recently launched a royalty strategy (pharmaceuticals/music) for uncorrelated returns.

Risk Management & Geopolitical Response

• PMRS De-risking: Executed a major de-risking process reallocating 51% of assets over three years to reduce exposure.
• PMRS Risk Reduction Results: Recent analysis indicates the strategy can eliminate >100 basis points (bps) of risk while adding 70 bps of return through new allocations in private credit and infrastructure.
• Mubadala Scenario Planning: Rejects binary "base case/downside" models; now utilizes 5-10 scenarios to ensure portfolio resilience against volatility and uncertainty.
• Market Volatility: Both panelists acknowledge inflation, populism, and trade tariffs as "new norms," requiring dynamic asset allocation rather than static policies.
• PMRS Performance: Diversification strategy enabled the fund to outperform benchmarks on 1, 5, and 10-year horizons despite recent market downturns.

New Asset Classes & Innovation

• AI Deployment: Mubadala has been investing in AI infrastructure (semiconductors, data centers) since 2009; expects 7,000 new data centers to be built by 2030 (double the volume of the prior 15-20 years).
• Partners Group Expansion: Launching royalty strategies to access fixed-income-like returns with equity upside, seeking assets with low correlation to traditional private markets.
• Tooling: Mubadala is internally developing AI solutions to enhance diligence, underwriting, and risk management across the investment lifecycle.

Long-Term Risk Outlook

• Unknown Unknowns: Both Tim and Mark identify "unforeseen risks" (e.g., unpredictable wildfire conditions due to climate change) as the primary long-term concern, emphasizing vigilance over specific prediction.
• Opportunity Side: Risks are viewed as catalysts for investment; for example, climate risks drive opportunities in disaster recovery, healthcare, and grid electrification.
• Mindset: Mubadala advocates staying "risk-on" and deploying capital through cycles rather than sitting on the sidelines, accepting that risks and opportunities are two sides of the same coin.

Asia Strategy & Regional Dynamics

• Mubadala China & Asia: Maintains a dedicated team (40-50 professionals in China); has been invested in China since 2015, accelerating pan-Asia deployment despite Western withdrawals.
• Asian Fundamentals: Mubadala cites Asia's massive demographics (half of global population), growing wealth, lower inflation compared to developed markets, and strong educational infrastructure as key tailwinds.
• Key Markets: India, Japan, and South Korea identified as highly attractive for direct deployment and fund investment.
• On-Ground Intelligence: Mark emphasizes the necessity of physical presence in Asia (e.g., walking Hong Kong) to observe dynamic changes that data reports miss.
• Partners Group Presence: Operates 700 employees in Asia to gather data points and connect regional insights with global investment theses.

Future Actions & Strategic Shifts

• PMRS Next Steps: Tim plans to fully enter two new asset classes over the coming months, focusing on rigorous manager selection and process execution.
• Mubadala Evolution: Shifting from broad asset class analysis to nuanced sector and regional fundamentals (US, Europe, Asia) due to changing correlations.
• Human Behavior Focus: Kevin Liu and Mark highlight that human behavior remains the most unpredictable variable, noting that code/AI cannot fully quantify this factor.
• Collaboration: Mubadala prioritizes partnerships and collaboration to mitigate risk and share value creation, acknowledging no single entity can navigate the complex landscape alone.