Asia
Big deals: Buyouts, tech transactions and the AVCJ Awards
Starting with the acquisition of Japan Telecom’s fixed-line business in 2003, Asia has seen 29 buyouts of $2 billion or more, although about 10 of those could be classified as large-scale infrastructure deals somewhat removed from the corporate private...
Auda to be brought under HQ Capital brand
Auda International, the private equity arm of the Harald Quandt family, has been folded under the HQ Capital brand alongside its sister alternative investment businesses.
VIDEO: Warburg Pincus' Charles R. Kaye
Twenty years after Warburg Pincus set up shop in Asia, the region accounts for one third of the firm’s headcount and approximately one third of its most recent global fund. However, Charles R. Kaye, co-CEO of Warburg Pincus, is non-committal when asked...
Partners Group-owned Trimco buys A-Tex from Polaris
Trimco, a Hong Kong-headquartered garment label manufacturer controlled by Partners Group, has agreed to buy industry peer A-Tex from Europe-based Polaris Private Equity.
Nominations open for the 15th AVCJ Awards
Following a significant change in format last year, the 2015 - and 15th - AVCJ Private Equity & Venture Capital Awards features just one new prize. The venture capital deal of the year category has been split in two: early stage technology and late stage...
Kerogen to invest $100m in North Sea gas developer
Kerogen Capital, a Hong Kong-headquartered energy investor, has committed up to $100 million to Zennor Petroleum, an exploration and production (E&P) company that focuses on the UK’s North Sea area.
The race to stay relevant
The last couple of weeks have been relatively slow as the industry shakes off the summer doldrums. We are now beginning to see more activity on the deal-making front, as well as a few interesting fund launches such as Chang Sun’s new China agribusiness...
Q&A: Terra Firma's Guy Hands
As Terra Firma prepares to return to market, Guy Hands, the firm’s founder and chairman, explains why the changing GP-LP dynamic requires more flexibility on structures and fees, and GPs with more skin in the game
Fund focus: CDIB's differentiated middle-market play
It was 2008 and CDIB Capital, the PE arm of Taiwan’s China Development Financial (CDF), had been looking at potential investments in the online gaming space. However, most of the companies it found were overvalued or deemed too risky because their livelihoods...
SoftBank: Venture legacy
SoftBank’s direct investment activity has shifted towards later-stage deals and it is expected to remain there. But the Japanese technology giant has not given up on its VC affiliates and subsidiaries in Asia
LP interview: Germany's DEG
Active in Asia for 50 years, German development finance institution DEG can claim a role in the emergence of PE in the region. Singapore-based Marcus Bracht explains how its strategy has evolved since then.
Worst case scenarios: How GPs recover value
There are various ways for PE investors to seek legal recourse against portfolio companies that have behaved improperly – provided they have structured deals properly and don’t mind getting their hands dirty
Graybeards: External directors and PE portfolio companies
Just over eight years ago, I penned an article for another publication on the role of independent directors at Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This was mid-2007, and China Construction Bank (CCB), Bank of China (BoC) and Industrial & Commercial...
PE investors must think more deeply about value-add - AVCJ Forum
PE and VC firms should think more carefully about how they can add value to portfolio companies, using their board representation as a tool for constructive guidance as much as oversight, industry participants told the AVCJ Singapore Forum.
Ex-Telstra Super PE executive turns agribusiness investor
Robert Talevski, previously head of private markets portfolio manager at Telstra Super, has set up an investment firm that will source and execute deals in Australian agribusiness, taking advantage of strong cross-border demand for exposure to the space....
VIDEO: CPPIB's Mark Machin
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is one of few North American LPs to set up an office in Asia and Mark Machin, the group's head of international and Asia president, admits it is not for everyone
Q&A: Clearwater Capital Partners' Robert Petty
Robert Petty, managing partner and co-founder at Clearwater Capital Partners, explains why a strong credit and special situations investment strategy in Asia often involves going against the grain
US LPs and Asian GPs: Survival of the fittest
With US LPs refocusing their Asia exposure – reducing the number of commitments if not the aggregate size – smaller funds may be feeling the pinch. But this could benefit the long-term health of the market
Bain to sell electronic connectors maker FCI Asia for $1.28b
Bain Capital has agreed to sell FCI Asia, which manufacturers connectors used in electronics, data storage and telecommunications, to US-headquartered industry peer Amphenol for $1.28 billion.
Formation 8 to raise Asia VC fund
US venture capital firm Formation 8 is looking to raise a $400 million Asia fund to connect start-ups in the region with Silicon Valley.
Carlyle commits $500m to South Asia energy platform
The Carlyle Group has committed $500 million to an upstream oil and gas start-up that will primarily focus on development and production opportunities in the Indian subcontinent.
VIDEO: Guernsey Finance's Dominic Wheatley
Investors are increasingly looking to run their activities through high quality rather than mass-market jurisdictions in response to stricter regulatory scrutiny, according to Dominic Wheatley, CEO of Guernsey Finance
Japan to lead boom in Asia restructuring activity - survey
Corporate restructuring activity in Japan should lead to a broader rise in the number of distress opportunities in Asia, as a result of both regulatory change and added pressure from investors.
CLSA closes third Asia real estate fund at $1b
CLSA Capital Partners has closed its third Asian real estate fund - Fudo Capital III - at the hard cap of $1 billion, exceeding its initial target of $850 million.