The four pillars of private investment groups, including sovereign wealth funds, saw rapid growth in assets under management in 2007 in spite of credit turmoil.

The four – Asian governments, oil exporters, hedge funds and private equity groups – saw their combined assets expand more than 22 per cent to just less than $11,500bn by the end of last year from $8,800bn at the end of 2006, says a report to be published on Thursday by McKinsey Global Institute.