North America
Asian SWFs ramp up in North American oil and gas
PRC petrochemicals major Sinopec’s $4.65 billion buy into Canadian heavy oil producer Syncrude, covered recently in AVCJ, had one extra salient feature.
S3 Investment launches Redwood Fund for China
OTC-quoted S3 Investment Company, a US investment banking and financial advisory firm seeking to tap the PRC market, has announced the launch of its Redwood Asia Fund, a growth capital private equity fund targeting opportunities in China and Mongolia....
Li Ka-shing fund, Infocomm, Skype founders invest Singapore's GuardTime
Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing's early stage Horizon Ventures fund, and Ambient Sound Investments, established by the four founding engineers of Skype Technologies, have joined in an $8 million Series A round for Singapore-based GuardTime Ltd., a data security...
Bain & Co.'s Park leaves Seoul for NYC
Business consulting firm Bain & Company has announced the transfer of Chul-Joon Park, the partner and global director hitherto leading its Asia Pacific Private Equity Practice from Seoul, to New York, where he will be working with the firm's private equity...
CIC, KIC to invest in Chesapeake
Leading Asian SWFs the China Investment Corporation (CIC) and the Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) are reportedly joining a $900 million investment into heavily indebted US natural gas and energy company Chesapeake Energy.
DCM invests in Softbank streaming JV
Softbank Corp., the Japanese mobile phone service provider and investment conglomerate, will establish a joint venture called Ustream Asia, with Ustream Holding, a US online movie distributor, in partnership with US venture capital firm DCM.
CIC invests Penn West oil sands
China Investment Corporation has continued the recent trend of PRC investment in Canada's northern oil sands regions, paying C$817 million ($801 million) for 45% of energy trust Penn West's Peace River project.
DCM, Walden-backed Dangdang seeks IPO by year end
VC-invested Chinese online shopping site Dangdang.com has appointed Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley as advisors for a US IPO, expecting to list by year end.
Shinsei, Aozora call off bank merger
Shinsei Bank, 33% owned by US private equity group JC Flowers & Co., and Aozora Bank, 50.5% owned by Cerberus Capital Management, have called off their merger plan, due to many outstanding differences over business operations.
Goodman and CPPIB launch joint fund
Goodman Group, Australia's largest industrial property trust, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) announced the formation of a joint Australia-focused fund with with a target gross asset value of around A$400 million ($350 million).
VC-backed Jinko Solar disappoints at IPO
VC-backed Chinese solar company Jinko Solar Holding Co. Ltd., could not raise its expected target from its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange; selling 5.84 million American Depositary Shares for $11, the bottom of an expected price range up to $13,and...
CIC takes 45% of Canada's crude oil trust
Canada's Penn West Energy Trust has formed a joint venture with a wholly owned unit of China Investment Corporation (CIC) to develop the trust's bitumen assets in the Peace River area of Northern Alberta.
HarbourVest buys up Saudi stake in funds
According to reports, HarbourVest Partners has purchased Saudi conglomerate Saad Group’s stake in up to 30 private equity funds.
Summit Partners to open India office in 2011
Boston-based Summit Partners has just announced that it will open an office in the country in 2011.
Sinopec stakes its claim
Large PRC oil companies have been quietly taking ever-bigger positions in heavy oil businesses in Canada’s oil-rich Alberta province for some time.
Advantage restructures US investee GST Autoleather
Advantage Partners, a Tokyo-based private equity firm, has reportedly restructured the balance sheet of its investee company GST Autoleather Inc. in a series of moves since September 2009, making three voluntary debt repayments totaling $39.2 million....
Temasek, Hopu invest Chesapeake Energy
Singapore SWF Temasek Holdings and multi-strategy regional firm Hopu Investment Management are making a joint $600 million investment in Chesapeake Energy Corp., a major US developer of natural gas and oil resources.
Ex CalPERS Buenrostro, Villalobos sued for fraud
Former California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) CEO Federico Buenrostro Jr. and former CalPERS board member Alfred Villalobos have been sued by California State Attorney General Edmund Brown on fraud charges, including alleged attempted...
Temasek moves into Canada/Panama mining with Inmet
Singapore SWF Temasek Holdings has invested C$500 million ($488 million) in Toronto-listed Inmet Mining Corp., for around 14.15% of the company.
Carlyle to take on $5.1bn in credit assets
The Carlyle Group is once again expanding its mandate, this time into credit assets.
Schroders sells fund admin unit to JPMorgan
Schroders has agreed to sell its global private equity administration services business to JPMorgan for an undisclosed sum.
Candover may go to Canada LP Aimco
Troubled UK listed buyout group Candover Investments has confirmed that it has received approaches for a takeover of its business from $70 billion Canadian pension fund Alberta Investment Management Corp. (Aimco).
China Select gets Suzhou RMB OK
China Select Capital Partners Corp., a Toronto Venture Exchange-listed asset management and investment firm, has announced that it has received approval from the municipal government overseeing Suzhou Industrial Park to manage RMB funds in China.
Shanghai Ventures invests Advantech
Shanghai Ventures has announced a $14 million co-investment with the Pan family of Chinese entrepreneurs in Advantech Global Ltd., a US thin-film transistor manufacturer founded by Dr Peter Brody, the inventor of active-matrix LCD technology.