If there’s one thing Southeast Asian investors have been waiting for all year in 2022, it’s a private market correction. While US public and private markets have tumbled since the beginning of 2022, Southeast Asia’s privately funded firms have barely budged. In fact, several continue to sit on last-round valuations priced during the boom years of 2020-21.
This delay is largely on account of the fact that Southeast Asia’s investors still have little exposure to public markets. As such, investors are less incentivised to mark down their private portfolios if their companies continue to hold the option of fixing their businesses to grow into their now-lofty valuations.
