The Asia Arbitrage: Accessing the $2T+ opportunity
The Episode at a Glance
Summary
Eric Marchand breaks down the $2.7 trillion venture and growth opportunity across Asia that remains systematically underallocated by Western institutional capital. He frames the Asia arbitrage into two distinct categories: emerging markets (which offer growth-driven returns with reduced leverage dependence) and developed Asian markets like Japan and Korea (which deliver risk-adjusted returns comparable to Western markets at better valuations). The core thesis is reframing Asia exposure as a diversification play rather than an alpha-seeking strategy—a mindset shift that has burned many endowments and family offices over the past decade. Marchand outlines a simple playbook: balance regional exposures across emerging and developed markets, avoid the 80-90% China concentration trap of 2010-2021, and recognize that partnership quality and local diligence capability are more critical than trying to be "local everywhere."
Guest
Eric Marchand Managing Partner at Collyer Capital, an asset management firm based in Singapore specializing in venture and growth investments across Asian markets. With 15+ years of deployment experience in ASEAN markets, Marchand has built deep networks and operational expertise across a region most Western allocators avoid due to diligence and structuring complexity.
In Eric's Words
"Stop looking for alpha. This is a diversification play toward high-growth economies and less leverage."
03:02 The Golden Rule of Asian Allocation
"The arbitrage is twofold: emerging markets deliver growth-driven returns with less leverage dependence, while developed Asian markets like Japan and Korea offer similar risk-adjusted returns to the US and Europe at slightly more reasonable valuations."
01:15 The Two-Category Arbitrage
"From 2010 to 2021, 80 to 90% of allocations went to China. People overlooked the other parts of the region. Balance your exposures—every part has its own opportunities."
03:47 The China Concentration Trap
"You cannot be local everywhere. Knowing what you don't know makes the value of what you're doing. The hard part is evaluating partnership quality—it takes time, successes, failures, and experience."
05:24 The Partnership Imperative
"ASEAN is at the inflection point where India was in 2014-2015. The vintages from those years in India were really solid—ASEAN is positioned the same way now."
06:48 The ASEAN Inflection Point
"China is still growing three to fourfold faster than France. By picking sectors where Chinese companies are thriving and becoming global leaders, you can get it right."
07:03 The China Opportunity Thesis
"Australia has delivered consistent returns over three decades with no crisis. The responsible stewardship of the economy is steady Eddie—fundamentals are very strong."
07:46 Australia as the Steady Bet
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