Our private equity teams invest in segments of the market that, in our view, are generally underserved by other providers of private capital. We invest directly in private businesses and also allocate capital to compelling fund managers, secondary market opportunities and co-investments on behalf of our limited partners. We seek situations where we believe our expertise, reputation and access to the unparalleled resources of Morgan Stanley will enable us to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns.
For over 30 years, Morgan Stanley Investment Management has been a significant provider of capital to middle-market companies in North America. We invest across a range of industries and specialize in buyout strategies, including founder recapitalizations and “buy and build-up” situations. In addition, we have a well-established team that focuses on late-stage investing in high-growth companies and, for close to 25 years, we have been a leading player in the Asia-Pacific private equity market. Our AIP Private Markets team specializes in fund investing, secondaries, co-investments and impact investing.
Our portfolio companies benefit from the expertise and experience of our private equity professionals and access to the unparalleled resources of Morgan Stanley. Our operating partners help our portfolio companies sharpen their business plans and improve their efficiency. The Firm's global relationship network enables us to identify and recruit high-caliber executives and board members, and our thought leaders share their insights with our management teams. The AIP Private Market's team leverages its reputation as a partner of choice and its broad network of General Partner relationships to secure access to managers in less transparent areas of the private equity universe and to identify attractive secondary and co-investment opportunities.