Global private equity firms increasingly have Asia in their sights. CVC Capital Partners (CVC) a privately owned investment and advisory company, has closed its $1.975 billion Asia Pacific Fund, CVC's second Asia fund and a joint venture with former parent Citigroup.
CVC Capital Partners Asia Pacific II LP is the largest ever fund raised for investments within Asia Pacific. CVC's previous fund was a comparative minnow with $750 million of capital. That did not stop the fund scoring some big prizes, however, including Pacific Brands, Haitai Confectionery and Yellow Pages.
CVC will be hoping to emulate those results, but with such a huge sum of deployable capital and the corresponding leverage that so much equity capital implies, CVC will realistically be able to concentrate only on the largest buy-outs in the region, a fact that explains the fund's intended country focus on the region's most developed economies of Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.
CVC will not be the only buy-out fund with its sights on large Asian deals. Competition from other large international private equity firms for Asian assets is heating up with reports that US giants Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Blackstone are looking for opportunities in Asia.