Funds
India’s BookAdSpace gets angel investment
BookAdSpace, an online platform for buying and selling physical advertising space, has received angel funding from Aakrit Vaish, the director of Flurry India, and Mitesh Sampat, the vice-president of product strategy at Quova.
Billabong receives takeover bid from Altamont, VF Corp
Altamont Capital Partners has teamed up with US apparel company VF Corp. to submit a rival takeover bid for Billabong International. The consortium is offering to pay A$1.10 per share in cash – or A$527 million ($555 million) – for the Australia surfwear...
CVC completes another Samsonite selldown
CVC Capital Partners has exited HK$1.45 billion ($187 million) worth of shares in Samsonite International as part of a HK$2.24 billion sell-down with fellow investor Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
DCM invests in Chinese game developer Cmune
DCM has provided an undisclosed amount in Series A funding to Cmune, a China-based developer of 3D social games. The company is best known for UberStrike, which claims to the most popular first-person-shooter game on Facebook with 1.4 million monthly...
Accel Partners leads Series C round for India's ScaleArc
Accel Partners has led a $12.3 million round of Series C funding in ScaleArc, a database infrastructure software company founded by Mumbai entrepreneur Varun Singh.
Catalyst acquires RBI Australia
Catalyst Investment Managers has acquired Reed Business Information Australia (RBIA) from parent company Reed Elsevier. RBIA, a local unit of the B2B publisher's Reed Business Information (RBI) division, owns titles including Money Management, Australian...
VIDEO: Ralph Jaeger of Siguler Guff
Pockets of growth in lower-tier cities continue to present the most enticing opportunities for emerging markets investors, says Ralph Jaeger, managing director and co-portfolio manager of Siguler Guff’s BRIC Opportunities Funds
Matrix Partners India invests in Mswipe
Matrix Partners India has led the first institutional round of funding in Mswipe Technologies, a mobile payment services provider based in Mumbai.
IFC backs Lighthouse’s second India SME fund
Lighthouse Funds has won a commitment of up to $25 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for its latest India-focused vehicle. The GP is targeting a corpus of $125 million for India 2020 Fund II, which will invest in small- and medium-sized...
Attractive China secondary targets rising at 25% per year – study
At least 200 private equity portfolio companies in China are attractive targets for potential secondary buyers and the number is likely to grow 15-25% per year as funds come to the end of their lives and find that exit options are still limited.
Blackstone appoints ex-PwC executive as Singapore chairman
The Blackstone Group has named Gautam Banerjee as Singapore chairman and appointed him to its international advisory board. He was previously executive chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers Singapore and also served as the accounting firm’s COO for China,...
Carlyle completes China Pacific exit, takes total sales value past $5b
The Carlyle Group has completed what is said to be its largest-ever cash exit globally, selling the last of its interest in China Pacific Insurance for $796 million. The private equity firm has accumulated more than $5 billion through a series of block...
Cerberus begins Aozora exit with $1.8b sell down
Cerberus is to sell the bulk of its 58% holding in Japan's Aozora Bank through a public market sale that could generate up to JPY158.1 billion ($1.8 billion). The US firm's stake would fall to 8%.
Chinese short-term rental sites secure $20m in VC backing
Xiaozhu.com and Mayi.con, two competing Chinese websites specializing in short-term room rentals, have each secured $10 million in VC funding.
ICICI, Apollo raise $500m distressed fund – report
ICICI Ventures and Apollo Global Management have reportedly raised $325 million to invest in distressed Indian companies. The joint fund, namely AION, will eventually increase its corpus to $500 million.
CanBank Venture backs India’s Vinyas Innovative Technology
Canbank Venture Capital Fund, the PE unit of Canara Bank, has invested INR100 million ($1.8 million) in Mysore-based electronic manufacturing services firm Vinyas Innovative Technologies.
Unitus raises $8m for India seed fund
Unitus Seed Fund (USF) has raised more than $8 million for its seed-stage venture capital fund focused on start-ups serving India's low-income consumers.
China's Mailman to set up early-stage Asia fund
Mailman, a social media and digital marketing company based in China, is a forming a start-up fund that will provide Series A funding rounds.
Indonesia’s Berrybenka gets funding from Gree Ventures
Gree Ventures, the VC arm of social Japanese social networking giant Gree, has completed its third investment in Indonesia, providing a Series A round of funding to fashion-focused e-commerce start-up Berrybenka. The size of the investment was not disclosed.
CapAsia to launch $350m infrastructure fund
Singapore-based Capital Advisors Partners Asia (CapAsia) is in the process of launching a new infrastructure fund to invest in projects across Southeast Asia. The fund - CapAsia ASEAN Infrastructure III - will start out with $100 million and eventually...
VCs and mobile internet: The race to stay relevant
Venture capital investors targeting the mobile and social media space are only as good as their understanding of the consumer habits and technologies that underpin industry trends
Taiwan's Chinatrust in talks to buy Tokyo Star Bank - report
Chinatrust Commercial Bank, one of Taiwan's largest commercial banks, is reportedly in talks to acquire Tokyo Star Bank for JPY50 billion ($582 million). Tokyo Star's shareholders, which include Lone Star Funds, have previously struggled to find interested...
Equis closes first fund at $647m
Equis Funds Group, a pan-Asian fund manager focused on Asian energy and infrastructure, has closed its first private equity fund - Equis Asia Fund I - at $647 million, exceeding its initial target of $500 million.
Carlyle relists Chimney, completes partial exit
The Carlyle Group has completed a partial exit from Japanese restaurant chain Chimney having relisted the company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange three years after taking it private. It is the private equity firm’s first IPO in Japan this year, having abandoned...