Shan exits TPG for solo fund

Now Weijian Shan, also Managing Partner with TPG Capital in Hong Kong, has stepped down in an apparently friendly departure, looking to form a new fund of his own.

Shan was closely associated with marquee early investments by TPG, through its former Newbridge Capital vehicle, such as the recently-exited Shenzhen Development Bank investment. He also led major non-PRC investments, including the $840 million buyout of Taiwan’s Taishin Financial Holdings in January 2006, and Korea First Bank, invested in 1999, turned around under Shan’s leadership, and sold to Standard Chartered Bank in 2005 for $3.3 billion, a threefold return. His legacy and track record certainly bode well for Shan where fundrasing is concerned. Although the top has began to open from LPs, only fund managers witgh significant experience are having luck getting firm commitments.

Shan’s new fund is a pan-Asian vehicle slanted towards buyouts, with a wider geographical focus than the Greater China tilt that some observers expected. TPG has already indicated that some of its partners may act as seed investors in Shan’s new vehicle, and that the firm may co-invest with Shan on some deals. Shan will also remain as a senior advisor for TPG and as a board member for investees, including Lenovo and Taishin.

According to AVCJ sources, the firm has also not yet contemplated a direct replacement for Shan, and will continue to rely on the strength and depth of its current team for regional investing.

Shan’s TPG colleague Dan Carroll returned to the firm’s San Francisco office in early 2009, yielding place in Hong Kong to Stephen Peel, a veteran emerging markets investor who headed up the firm’s Moscow office and is now Managing Partner and Group Head.

Shan declined to add further comment to previous statements on his departure. TPG declined to comment to AVCJ. 

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• Topics
• People
• Buyout
• Performance
• Greater China
• TPG Capital
• Stephen Peel
• Weijian Shan