(Bloomberg) -- Granite Asia, the re-branded Asia business of venture-capital firm GGV Capital, has hired Roger Zhang, former managing director at Blackstone Inc., as a partner for its credit team.

Zhang’s LinkedIn profile mentioned his new role, starting in May, includes credit solutions and private debt. At Blackstone, Zhang was responsible for origination and execution of credit investments across capital structure in Asia, including private credit. Prior to Blackstone, he was head of private debt APAC at Partners Group.

Granite Asia, fresh off the split from its US counterpart, is assembling a private-credit investing team as early as the second half of this year, Bloomberg News reported in March. It is considering raising money to invest in private debt for the first time to take advantage of the $1.7 trillion asset class.

Read More: GGV Asia Mulls Venture Into Private Debt After Split From US

The Asia partnership is led by Jenny Lee and Jixun Foo in Singapore. With a combined portfolio of about $5 billion in investments it will focus on markets including China, Japan, South Asia, Australia and Southeast Asia. 

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