PAG closes second Asia fund at $3.66b - update

The GP, which is led by Weijian Shan, formerly of TPG Capital, closed its maiden fund at $2.5 billion in 2012. A filing for the latest fund was made on December 29, indicating that 69 investors have committed capital.

PAG targets buyouts and control deals as well as structured investments. It typically invests at least $100 million in equity per deal and focuses on sectors that leverage private consumption, notably consumer and retail, food and beverages, financial services, healthcare, and media and entertainment.

The increase in fund size over the previous vintage is said to reflect the fact that PAG has added personnel as well as greater availability of deals of significant size. 

As of December 2014, Fund I had nine portfolio companies and had committed approximately $1.6 billion. Seven of them were China-based, including: mobile phone retailer Funtalk China, which was taken private in 2011; drug developer Bicon Pharmaceutical; and brokerage Haitong Securities, which brought in PAG as an investor in its IPO. The non-China deals were theme park operator Universal Studios Japan and property services business DTZ.

There have been subsequent investments, including South Korea-based Young Toys. PAG bought the company from Headland Capital Partners for around $200 million.

There were also three recorded exits from the first vehicle as of December 2014 - Funtalk, Bicon and Haitong - resulting in distributions of about $1 billion. Exit activity since then includes Universal Studios as Comcast Corp. agreed to pay JPY183 billion ($1.5 billion) for a 51% stake in the business. The four PE owners are staying on as minority investors.

Final closes for Bain Capital's third Asia fund - the firm raised $3 billion plus a GP commitment of at least $250 million - and PAG take the regional PE fundraising figure for 2015 to $57.7 billion. This is more than the $55.7 billion raised in 2013, but it remains the fifth lowest total in the past 10 years.

Other significant final closes in 2015 include Baring Private Equity Asia, which raised $3.99 billion for its sixth fund (although much of that fell into the 2014 statistics due to a substantial first close that year), and RRJ Capital, which closed Fund III at $4.5 billion.

Park Hill Group served as placement agent for PAG Asia II.

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• Buyout
• GPs
• Asia
• Fundraising
• buyout
• PAG
• Weijian Shan