Maine PERS commits $30m to Affinity’s fourth Asia fund
Affinity Equity Partners has secured a $30 million commitment for its fourth pan-Asia fund from the Maine Public Employees’ Retirement Systems (Maine PERS). It was one of four investments, each of the $30 million that the $11 billion pension plan announced following its November quorum.
Affinity is targeting $3.5 billion for the fund, which launched in September. Its previous vehicle closed in March 2007 at $2.8 billion, having spent barely four months in the market. LPs in Fund III are said to include California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) and Washington State Investment Board.
About 1.2% of Maine PERS' total portfolio is invested in private equity, with 2.2% in infrastructure and 2.9% in opportunistic strategies. The pension plan is mandated to invest about 20% in alternative assets and up to 10% in opportunistic strategies.
Several global and regional buyout firms are currently in the market raising Asia funds, some targeting considerably larger corpuses than in the previous cycle. KKR reached the halfway point on its $6 billion second fund in June, while TPG Capital and The Carlyle Group are said to be seeking around $4 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively. RRJ Capital has targeted up to $5 billion.
Two PE firms have already completed fundraising. PAG reached a final close of $2.5 billion on its debut private equity fund, while Bain Capital secured $2.3 billion for its second Asia vehicle.
Yesterday AVCJ revealed that MBK Partners has reached a first close of $1.25 billion for its third North Asia-focused buyout fund, which has a full target of $2.25 billion.
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