HONG KONG, June 21 (Reuters) - Global private investment firm Partners Group said on Friday it has opened an office in Hong Kong, in a major push to expand its private wealth client base in Greater China.

The firm, based in Zug, Switzerland, has appointed Henry Chui, its head of private wealth in Asia Pacific, to lead the Hong Kong office, it said in a statement.

Partners Group's Hong Kong-based team will focus on expanding the firm's private wealth client base by adding local strategic distribution partners for its private market funds and products, which include evergreen funds, the firm said.

The move comes as fund managers seek to diversify fundraising and deal distribution channels by tapping private wealth which they believe has a growing appetite for alternative investments.

Global investment giants including KKR & Co, Blackstone Inc and EQT have all established Asia-based teams dedicated to private wealth clients in recent years.

Partners Group's Hong Kong office launch also comes as wealthy individual investors in Greater China increasingly look offshore for investment opportunities and higher returns amid China's economic slowdown and a weakened renminbi.

Founded in 1996, Partners Group has 1,900 staff members globally and around $150 billion in assets under management across private equity, real estate, infrastructure, credit and secondaries globally.

It opened its first Asian office in 2004 in Singapore, which is also the firm's regional headquarters.

It now has over 550 staff members in the region in Manila, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo.

The firm has launched a private equity secondary strategy fund worth up to $12 billion, betting on growing deal flows in the secondaries space, its chairman of Asia said in March at a Hong Kong conference. (Reporting by Kane Wu; Editing by Sonali Paul)