SSG raises $915m for Asia special situations fund

The GP's original target was $800 million and a first close came in March at around half the fund size. The hard cap was imposed when it became evident that the fund would be substantially oversubscribed. Total demand was in excess of $1 billion.

"The general reception around special situations and credit has improved in the last couple of years," said Edwin Wong, managing partner and CIO at SSG. "Investors used to be only focused on equity strategies in Asia but now that is changing. It is a function of the slowdown in the economy and the lack of performance by many GPs on the equity side. LPs are re-thinking their strategies."

The SSG team has been operating in the special situations space since 1997, having originally run Lehman Brothers' Asia special situations group. Their first fund, launched in the wake of the global financial crisis, had no formal institutional roll-out and closed at just over $100 million in December 2010, although they ended up deploying around $300 million in equity due to co-investment by LPs.

Fund II was a different story, closing at the hard cap of $400 million in late 2012. Wong said the GP came back with a new fund so soon because Fund II was small relative to the firm's deal pipeline. The fund is over 100% drawn and - because most transactions are debt-based - already making distributions.

"We have returned a very meaningful amount of capital to LPs but we are still at a very early stage in terms of exiting positions," he added.

At least 70% of the new vehicle will be deployed in SSG's core geographies of India, China and Indonesia. Investments tend to be sourced locally and range from distress and restructuring situations to providing growth capital for companies that cannot get financing from traditional sources.

India has been the most active market for Fund II but Wong expects China to feature more prominently in Fund III. "We have been a bit cautious in China but with the slowdown in the market we are seeing things pick up a bit," he said.

Mercury Capital Advisors was the placement agent for Fund III while Simpson Thacher served as fund counsel.

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• Credit/Special Situations
• Southeast Asia
• Greater China
• South Asia
• Distress
• Fundraising
• China
• Indonesia
• India
• SSG Capital Partners