ZURICH, May 6 Reuters Swiss wealth and asset manager Pictet has named Edmund Buckley head of the Direct Private Equity division as the Genevabased group expands its alternative investment business, it said on Friday.

Buckley, who was previously a manager at private equity firm THI Investments, is expected to boost the business of direct investments in companies.

Buckley is the first prominent appointment of Elif Aktug, who heads the Pictet Alternative Advisors division and joined Pictet39;s eight managing partners in September.

Alternative investments are among Pictet39;s key growth areas. At the end of 2021, client assets of 32 billion Swiss francs 32.56 billion were in hedge funds, private equity and real estate funds.

At that time, Pictet had a total of 698 billion francs in assets under management or custody.

Andreas Klein becomes head of Private Debt, a job which was also newly created, a spokesperson said.

Private debt is increasingly competing with traditional bank loans. Klein had previously worked at Intermediate Capital Group.

Alternative investments are predicted to grow much faster than traditional investments in listed stocks or bonds.

Boston Consulting Group projects that assets under management in this area are expected to climb to 22 trillion globally by 2025 from 15 trillion in 2020.

Other major asset managers such as industry giant BlackRock are also betting on this trend.

1 0.9828 Swiss francs

Reporting by Oliver Hirt, Editing by Michael…