Ascendent seeks $500m for second China fund

The hard cap is not expected to exceed $650 million, according to sources familiar with the situation. The PE firm closed its debut fund at $365 million in 2012. Notable investments include pork producer WH Group, which raised $2 billion through a Hong Kong IPO last year. Ascendent is understood to have fully exited its position in the company.

The GP brings what has been described as a merchant banking-style approach to private equity, providing companies with capital in conjunction with advice and solutions. This is in keeping with the two founders' backgrounds. Liang Meng and Kevin Zhang met when advising CNOOC on the attempted acquisition of Unocal in 2005 - Meng was leading J.P. Morgan's M&A team and Zhang was on the capital markets side at Goldman Sachs.

Meng went on to lead D.E. Shaw's Greater China investment business while Zhang worked for Trustbridge Partners. Between 2007 and 2011 - before joining forces to set up Ascendent - they co-invested around $600 million in China private equity deals.

Speaking to AVCJ last year, Meng and Zhang observed that the advisory approach is particularly relevant in the present environment in China. Entrepreneurs are becoming more sophisticated, making them open to transactions they would not have considered 10 years ago, while the economy is slowing, which means companies are interested in solutions such as M&A that offer synergies and change the competitive landscape.

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• Greater China
• Expansion
• China
• Fundraising
• Growth capital
• Ascendent Capital
• Structured finance