Blackstone's Asia Tactical Opportunities head Moorjani resigns after 9 yrs

Blackstone Group Inc.’s Kishore Moorjani has resigned from the firm after leading the efforts for its opportunistic investment platform in Asia for nine years.

Moorjani, 48, who’s the Asia head of Tactical Opportunities, will leave the firm in June and pursue other interests, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman confirmed. He will be succeeded by Menes Chee, a senior partner who will relocate from the firm’s New York headquarters to Hong Kong in February, Blackstone said.

“Kishore has done an incredible job of building our business in an expansive and promising region,” David Blitzer, global head of Tactical Opportunities, said in an email. “We’re excited to have one of our most senior, long-serving partners in Menes take on this leadership role as we continue to expand” in Asia.

Moorjani is the third senior managing director departing from Blackstone in Asia since last month. Amit Jain, the Mumbai-based partner for its private equity business, will leave at end of this year, and Tim Wang, head of real estate for China, left in December, people familiar said earlier.

The departures also come as the firm is doubling down on Asia, seeking to raise at least $5 billion for its second private equity fund focused on the region.

Under Moorjani’s leadership, the team has deployed more than $2 billion across 13 investments in the region over the last seven years. The group expanded its Hong Kong presence in 2019, hiring two additional staff to focus on investments in Greater China, including Mike Shang. Daniel Kearns, who is based in Singapore, will also move to Sydney to open an Australia office.

In 2020, Blackstone Tac Opps made follow-on investments in New Zealand insurer Partners Life, an Indian distressed platform with HDFC Bank Ltd., and in Indonesian logistics business Emergent. These came after initial investments in those platforms from 2016 to 2018.

It also invested $150 million in preferred shares of Chinese data center company 21Vianet Group, whose stock price has more than doubled since the June investment. It also set aside $190 million for a venture to build hyperscale data centers in Japan the following month.

Moorjani joined Blackstone in 2012, the year the firm established the tactical opportunities business to provide flexible capital to high quality companies with bespoke investment structures across asset classes, sectors and security types. The division typically focuses on investment ideas that may fall beyond the mandates of Blackstone’s other funds.

Before joining Blackstone, Kishore was the founder and chief investment officer of Credit Asia Capital, an Asian special situations investment firm he established in partnership with the Blackstone Strategic Alliance Fund.

Chee has been with Blackstone since 2009 and was a founding member of the Tac Opps team when the firm established the business in 2012.