Baring scales up for Fund VI

"Early on in the fundraise we received a very strong response from investors, particularly from existing investors, so we knew we were going to have a lot of demand," Jean Eric Salata, CEO and founding partner of Baring Asia, tells AVCJ. "Even in that first close we had the difficult situation of having to make allocations to investors on the amounts they were looking for, versus what we thought we would be able to accommodate."

By that point investors from Fund V had already re-upped but a number of new LPs looking to commit were still working through their due diligence. Among Fund VI's 105 investors are the likes 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.

A final close of $3.98 billion was announced last week - the largest ever fundraise by an Asia-based GP. The vehicle, which includes $138 million from the firm's partners, is more than 62% bigger than its predecessor. However, Salata believes the size of the market justifies the size of the fund

"It think the fund size is right for the opportunity now. It also positions us as one of the largest firms in the region, and enables us to have all the resources to go after all the opportunities we see across the many different geographies that we are active in," he says.

Salata adds that in anticipation of a larger fund the firm has also been growing its head count. It currently has a team of 110 investment professionals across seven offices in Asia - more than double what it had for the last fund.

Despite the larger fund size, the GP will pursue a similar strategy as before: partnering with management to support the regional growth of portfolio companies through operational improvement, industry consolidation and cross-border expansion. In addition to targeting companies in Asia, Baring Asia will continue to back companies in Europe and North America with growth plans in Asia across numerous sectors.

"Deal flow has been evolving for the last 4-5 years but we really are not doing anything different now than we have been doing," Salata says. "The market has changed and there are more buyouts and larger minority deals."

In the past year the firm has made roughly about $1 billion in new equity investments with a total transaction value of nearly $2 billion. Meanwhile, it has distributed $800 million.

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• Fundraising
• Baring Private Equity Asia