CPPIB puts $236m into Asia co-investments in second quarter
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) defied the recent slowdown in Asia private equity investment to deploy more than CAD 300m (USD 236m) across five deals alongside portfolio GPs between April and June.
Three of these co-investments were in India. The pension plan committed CAD 120m to CVC Capital Partners’ CAD 705m acquisition of agrochemicals business Sajjan India. It also contributed CAD 50m and CAD 34m to Multiples Alternate Asset Management-led investments in digital insurance player Acko and non-banking financial company Kogta Financial at valuations of CAD 1bn and CAD 378m.
The other two co-investments were CVC’s USD 3.17bn take-private of Hong Kong-listed gaming hardware and software provider Razer and Anchor Equity Partners’ acquisition of Korea-based meal kit provider Fresheasy, which was reportedly worth KRW 300bn (USD 231m). CPPIB put in CAD 35m and CAD 65m, respectively.
On the funds side, CPPIB committed USD 100m to Trustar Capital’s latest China buyout fund, which has a target of USD 3.5bn. It is the latest in a string of China fund investments. Since October 2021, the pension plan has backed vehicles managed by Genesis Capital, DCP Capital Partners, and Meituan Long-Z.
CPPIB’s other Asia fund investments during this nine-month period were with Australia’s BGH Capital, India’s A91 Partners, Anchor, and Baring Private Equity Asia.
As of June, the pension plan had net assets of CAD 523bn. It posted a loss of 4.2% for the April-June quarter, although net annualised returns remained at 8.7% and 10.3% on a five-year and 10-year basis, respectively. Public markets volatility was blamed for the loss, but John Graham, CPPIB’s president and CEO, said a diversified portfolio helped moderate the impact.
“The uncertain business and investment conditions we noted in the previous quarter continue, and we expect to see this turbulence persist throughout the fiscal year,” he added in a statement.
As of March, the private equity allocation was 32%, compared to 9% for infrastructure, 9% for real estate, 16% for credit, 7% for fixed income, and 27% for public equities. Asia Pacific accounted for 26% of the portfolio across all asset classes.
Overall private equity investment in Asia fell from USD 111.9bn in the final three months of 2021 to USD 75.3bn and USD 50.1bn in the first two quarters of 2022.
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