Illinois Teachers commits up to $125m to MBK’s third fund

At the end of November, MBK reached a first close of $1.25 billion on its third buyout fund, which launched in September and has a full target of $2.25 billion. The vehicle will follow a similar strategy to its predecessor, focusing on control transactions in South Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan.

The Seoul-based GP, which was set up by Michael Kim, former president of Carlyle Asia, raised $1.6 billion for its second fund, with LPs said to include Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board as well as Illinois Teachers. The debut fund closed at $1.56 billion three years earlier.

As of September, Fund I had generated a realized gross IRR of 34.2% and a realized multiple of 2.9x. Recent exits include Singapore-listed Chinese pharmaceuticals firm Luye Pharma and Taiwan cable TV company CNS, although the latter is pending final regulatory approval. Fund II has made one partial exit so far with a realized IRR of 30.4% and a multiple of 1.8x.

MBK is one of a number of pan-regional GPs currently in the market. KKR reached the halfway point on its $6 billion second fund in June, while TPG Capital and The Carlyle Group are said to be seeking around $4 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively. RRJ Capital has targeted up to $5 billion and Affinity Equity Partners is seeking $3.5 billion.

Two PE firms have already completed fundraising. PAG reached a final close of $2.5 billion on its debut private equity fund, while Bain Capital secured $2.3 billion for its second Asia vehicle.

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• LPs
• North Asia
• LPs
• Fundraising
• Asia
• MBK Partners
• China
• South Korea
• Taiwan (China)