Allianz Global Investors, a leading investment management firm, will set up offices in Singapore for its Asian private credit team. Sumit Bhandari will help the company expand into a global private debt platform and Weizhoung Yun, who has about a decade of experience in the Asian markets will also join the team in Singapore. According to a company press release, more hirings will be done in the upcoming months to expand the Singapore team.

Bhandari brings with him about 17 years of market experience and has also helped create a private credit business in Asia.

“Given the abundant growth in Asian debt, it is critical we have the right expertise to identify the deals that we believe will help meet our investors’ portfolio return and diversification objectives, so I am delighted to have two such highly-experienced local market experts leading the build-out of our team,” said Deborah Zurkow, Global Head of Alternatives at Allianz Global Investors in a statement.

Compared to developed markets, Asia’s growth rates are higher. According to the investment firm, Asia’s mid-cap companies lack access to credit even though their fundamentals are strong. The company wants to access the private debt market in Asia which has proven to be the largest among emerging markets.

“Over time, with Asia as an anchor, we will explore further extending the range of emerging market credit our clients can gain access to via our rapidly expanding global platform,” said Zurkow.