Washington State commits $200m to China-focused Centurium

Centurium Capital Partners 2018 was launched in March 2018 with a target of $1 billion. It reached a first close of $925 million in June and subsequently raised the hard cap from $1.5 billion to $1.98 billion. An earlier disclosure by Washington State indicates the GP commitment will be at least $60 million.

The LP base comprises sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, large family offices, and fund-of-funds. Other backers are said to include GIC Private and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP).

Centurium focuses on control and significant minority deals across the consumer and healthcare sectors. Its key investment themes are consumption upgrades, new retail, the use of technology to reshape supply chains and business models, the impact of increased spending and an aging population on healthcare demand, and innovation in the biopharmaceuticals space.

China Biologic Products, coffee shop chain Luckin Coffee, eyewear brand Loho, cloud-based logistics software provider Keking, and education monitoring and management platform Zhangtong Jiayuan are among the early investees. Luckin recently received a $200 million follow-on round.

Li spent 14 years at Warburg Pincus, departing in 2016. He identified 12 investments from this period for which he directly led the sourcing, execution, and management. Washington State lists them as: Intime Department Store, Tulip Media, Gome, Synutra, Ucar, Kidswant, Lepu Medical, Uxin Group, China Auto Rental, Amcare Women's & Children's Hospital, and China Biologic.

Li's two partners at Centurium are Joseph Chow, who was previously a managing director and head of China deal origination at boutique investment bank Moelis & Co; and Lei Lin, who founded automotive research business Sinotrust Market Research, sold it to Experian Group in 2007, and then engaged in other entrepreneurial activities.

Washington State had assets of $132.3 billion as of September, of which 18.9% was deployed in private equity. This is one of the highest allocations to the asset class among US pension funds. Other GP relationships in Asia include Affinity Equity Partners, KKR, PAG Asia Capital, BGH Capital, CDH Investments, FountainVest Partners, and Warburg Pincus. 

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• Greater China
• LPs
• GPs
• China
• Centurium Capital
• Washington State Investment Board