Opportunities in commercial and industrial energy infrastructure are expected to grow significantly in Southeast Asia as the regulatory environment evolves, a senior executive at alternative asset manager Stonepeak told DealStreetAsia.
Further, the region’s abundance of natural resources and burgeoning infrastructure needs as the economies urbanise are driving growth particularly across the energy sector.
“We’re now beginning to see early signs of the ability to wheel power across the network,” said Hajir Naghdy, Senior Managing Director and Head of Asia & Middle East at Stonepeak.
“Historically, in Southeast Asia, regulatory constraints limited private electricity generators—you could generate power adjacent to a customer’s site, but you couldn’t freely wheel it across the grid if the customer was in a different location. Those rules are now starting to change.”
Stonepeak specialises in infrastructure and real assets, investing capital on behalf of pension funds, endowments, and other large institutions from around the world. The firm managed $76.3 billion worth of assets as of March 2025.
Commenting on the business and operating environment in emerging markets across Southeast Asia and South Asia, Naghdy pointed out that many countries appear to have made notable progress over the past 25 years, particularly in terms of external debt relative to GDP—a trend that provides a broadly constructive backdrop for investment.
He cited the example of the Philippines, where the firm is active and recent policy openings are already creating meaningful opportunities.
Naghdy observed that regulatory and practical factors continue to influence the attractiveness of the market to investors, and conditions vary across countries.“Overall, the region’s improvement in credit profiles [over the last ~25 years] supports a generally constructive environment for investors.”
Urbanisation driver
The infrastructure asset class is clearly expanding, though it remains smaller than private equity. Still, as other asset classes have matured, investors have sought greater diversification across subsectors and geographies—a trend now emerging within infrastructure as well.
As the asset class grows, global institutional investors are increasingly looking to the Asia-Pacific region for opportunities, reflecting the steady expansion of infrastructure over the past decade.
And, a key driver for broader capital investment opportunity in the Asia Pacific is the region’s rapid urbanisation, Naghdy said.
Indeed, the region has the highest rate of urbanisation globally, according to the World Bank, which also means a strain on energy supply and infrastructure.
Still, with the top 30 cities in the Asia-Pacific today together account for roughly $10 trillion in GDP, equivalent to the world’s third-largest economy, they present meaningful investment opportunities in digital infrastructure, energy transition, and transportation and logistics.
In the Philippines, for example, where mobile internet usage and social media engagement is higher than the global average, there is a significant gap between usage and infrastructure support, Naghdy pointed out. He cited data indicating that existing cell towers are inadequate in supporting the population’s needs: At only 0.32 towers per 1,000 people, compared with 1.15 towers per 1,000 people in the US.
“This underinvestment [in digital, energy and renewables, and transportation and logistics infrastructure] is a natural consequence of the speed and scale of urbanisation, and that’s the centrepiece of the opportunity,” Naghdy explained.
“Many opportunities across these sectors require new infrastructure investment to meet shifting demand, making them particularly suitable for private capital relative to more mature, established assets.”
APAC opportunities
Naghdy also noted that while many global tailwinds are at play, certain dynamics appear to be unique to the region.
In the energy sector, for one, markets are already significant growing at rates higher than in North America. Naghdy cited how the US electricity market, at roughly 4,000 terawatt-hours per year, has been relatively flat over the past two decades, though recent digitalisation has led to some growth.
In contrast, several Asia-Pacific economies—particularly in Southeast and North Asia—have experienced sustained mid-single-digit load growth, driven in part by industrialisation and increased adoption of air conditioning, more than digitalisation. This suggests a continued need for capital investment to support underlying, and growing, demand.
The region therefore presents an opportunity set shaped by both global trends and growth drivers that are specific to the Asia-Pacific context, which may make the investment landscape particularly compelling.
Different parts of the region present distinct types of opportunities. For instance, Japan and Korea are both significant energy markets—Japan consumes about 1,000 terawatt hours of electricity annually, while Korea consumes around 550 terawatt hours. Both have historically been major importers of energy, relying heavily on external sources to meet their fuel needs.
“Their respective strategic energy plans now place strong emphasis on developing renewables as part of broader energy self-sufficiency goals—a trend comparable to Europe’s REPowerEU initiative,” Naghdy said.
“In these markets, we are active in renewable energy investment and development, supported by government policies that encourage the expansion of renewables to meet decarbonisation and self-sufficiency targets.”
Ultimately, differentiating in the region may depend on developing the capability to create new assets or build platforms that support both investment and development.
“Stonepeak’s strength lies in leveraging our deep operational capabilities across digital, energy, and transportation and logistics,” said Naghdy. “We apply that expertise particularly where new infrastructure needs to be built, not just acquired, drawing on our technical know-how across development, construction, and operation.”
