Cathay reaches final close on Sino-French fund

A first close of EUR460 million was announced in July. The fund will support middle market French, Chinese and European companies that are looking to implement cross-border growth strategies.

China Development Bank (CDB) and Bpifrance, a subsidiary of French state-owned bank Caisse des Dépôts, each contributed EUR100 million when the fund was launched in March. The remainder has been raised from around 30 third-party investors based in Europe, China and the Middle East.

The majority of LPs from Cathay's existing funds re-upped in Cathay Midcap Growth Fund III. In total, institutional investors such as pension funds, banks and asset managers account for 80% of the corpus, with high net worth individuals and family offices contributing the remainder.

The expected geographical deployment is 40% France, 40% China and 20% Europe, with a core focus on Germany. The average investment size will be EUR15-50 million.

"The swift fundraising of our new midcap fund demonstrates the attractiveness of our investment strategy, the vast experience of our multicultural investment team and the dynamism of our whole ecosystem," Mingpo Cai, Cathay's president, said in a statement.

Set up in 2006, Cathay - which has more than EUR420 million in assets under management - has invested a total of EUR70 million in 18 companies over the last three years via its debut fund.

The PE firm has been investing its second fund - Cathay Capital II - and a EUR150 million Sino-French parallel fund it manages on behalf of CDB and Caisse des Dépôts since late 2012. The fund targets cross-border opportunities with small and medium-sized enterprises in both countries.

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• Europe
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Growth capital
• China
• Europe
• Fundraising
• Cathay Capital Private Equity