Baring PE Asia's Fund VI closes shy of $4b

The vehicle has originally sought to raise $3 billion when but this was revised when, within four months of launching, the fund secured a $3.3 billion first close last October and investors were scaled back due to excess demand.

Disclosed investors in Fund VI include: Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System (LACERS), Texas County & District Retirement System (TCDRS), Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS), San Francisco City & County Employees' Retirement System, and the Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System. The firm's partners committed $138 million to the fund, making them one of the largest investors.

The new vehicle is 62% bigger than is predecessor - Fund V - which closed at $2.46 billion in January 2011, beating its original target of $1.75 billion just six months after launching. According to Oregon Public Employees' Retirement Fund, as of June 2014 Baring's fifth fund had delivered a total value multiple of 1.19x and an IRR of 9.9%.

"Although there was demand for a substantially larger fund, we capped capital commitments at a level we were comfortable we could invest well," said Jean Eric Salata, founding partner and CEO of Baring, in a statement. "We are seeing many more situations involving large scale companies and more control deals than we used to, so we expect the average investment amount per company also to be larger."

The firm said it would continue with its strategy of partnering with management to support the regional growth of its portfolio companies through operational improvement, industry consolidation and cross-border expansion. The fund will target companies in Asia, as well as those in Europe and North America with growth plans in Asia across numerous sectors.

The PE firm has exited two Fund V investments in 2014 - Chinese cosmetic facial masks specialist Magic Holdings International, which was bought by L'Oreal, and jewelry recycler Net Japan, which was sold to Japanese financial services group Orix Corp.

In addition, there have been IPOs for Nord Anglia Education and China Shengmu Organic Milk in the US and Hong Kong, respectively. Last month it also sold its stake in jewelery retailer Primo Japan to The Longreach Group for JPY20 billion ($168 million).

Investments made by Baring over the past year include Japanese drug company Bushu Pharmaceuticals; St George's University, a Grenada-based medical school; UK lifestyle retailer Cath Kidston; Chinese hog farmer and meat processor COFCO Meat; and Chinese online game developer Giant Interactive.

Baring has now invested in 72 companies since its inception in 1997, with transaction values totaling US$11 billion. Today, the firm has more trhan $9 billion a team of 110 across seven offices in Asia.

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• Asia
• Baring Private Equity Asia
• Fundraising