CVC hits USD 3.5bn first close on sixth Asia fund
CVC Capital Partners achieved a first close of USD 3.5bn on its sixth pan-Asian fund at the end of last year.
Mergermarket, AVCJ's sister title, was informed of the first close by a source close to the situation. The source added that the hard cap had been set at USD 6.5bn.
CVC launched the fund in the first quarter of 2022, targeting USD 6bn. Fund V closed at the hard cap of USD 4.5bn in April 2020 and is nearly 90% deployed, the source said.
CVC, which has EUR 9bn (USD 9.7bn) in assets under management and 27 investments in Asia, has five core sectors: consumer, financial services, healthcare, technology, media, and telecom (TMT), and business services. It typically targets control, co-control, and structured minority investments with enterprise values of USD 250m to USD 1.5bn.
The firm is arguably distinct in deliberately pursuing a partnership approach, where it executes minority-joint control deals with founders and family groups. This strategy has been particularly prevalent in Southeast Asia, which is expected to account for 40% of Fund VI. The remaining 60% will be deployed in Japan, South Korea, India, and Australia.
Australia was reactivated in 2021 after being excluded from the Fund IV mandate. CVC hired Brett Sutton, formerly of Affinity Equity Partners, as the Australia chairman and tasked him with building a local team. He did this and departed at the end of last year, with Richard Blackburn, a London-based senior managing director, moving to Australia to become the country head.
CVC has 71 investment professionals across the region who work under Sigit Prasetya, a Singapore-based managing partner.
Activity last year included the acquisition of a 68.45% stake in Malaysia’s Affin Hwang Asset Management for MYR 1.54bn (USD 368m) and the privatisation of Hong Kong-listed gaming hardware developer Razer at a valuation of USD 3.17bn. It also exited two Indonesian companies, food and beverage player GarudaFood and broadband and cable TV provider Link Net.
At the same time, CVC was linked to targets such as cosmetics producer Aesop Retail and pallets provider Brambles in Australia.
Asia-focused PE managers raised USD 127.7bn last year, down slightly from USD 128.9bn in 2021, according to AVCJ, Mergermarket’s sister publication. BPEA EQT and The Blackstone Group led the way, securing USD 11.2bn and USD 6.4bn, respectively, for their latest Asian funds.
Of the other pan-regional players, TPG Capital announced a first close of USD 3.4bn for its eighth fund – against an overall target of USD 6bn – in November.
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