Update: CDIB Capital Asia Closes At $405m
This article was originally published on Private Equity International on August 3, 2015, written by Victoria Robson.
CDIB Capital’s debut Asia fund will provide growth capital and operational support to companies in China and the Asia Pacific region.
Hong Kong-based CDIB Capital International Corporation, the overseas investment arm of China Development Financial, has closed its CDIB Capital Asia Partners Fund at $405 million, Eaton Partners said in a statement.
The fund is CDIB’s first private equity vehicle marketed to third party investors.
Investors in the fund, for which Eaton was the sole placement agent, included funds of funds, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies and corporations, the statement said.
“There were investors from the US, Europe and Asia, it was pretty well balanced,” said Chris Lerner, a partner at Eaton’s Shanghai office. The fund, which was targeting about $400 million, closed within 12 months of its first close, he said.
The fund will provide growth capital and operational assistance to companies in China and the Asia Pacific region that offer Chinese cross-border opportunities. It is managed by Paul Yang, chairman of CDIB Capital and president and CEO of CDF, and Lionel de Saint-Exupery, who is president and CEO of CDIB Capital.
CDIB Capital’s private equity business targets profitable companies with addressable markets, defensible cash flow and proven management teams focused on sustainable growth, according to its website. Its investments are typically in the range of $20 million to $75 million.
CDF is a Taiwanese merchant banking group with approximately $20 billion of assets and the parent to China Development Industrial Bank.
CDIB Capital Asia is Eaton’s fourth Asian fund raising this year, following C-Bridge China Healthcare fund that raised $185 million, Asia-focused fund of funds Asia Alternatives Fund IV that raised $1.8 billion and BPE Asia Real Estate that collected $365 million that is sponsored by Baring Asia Private Equity.
“Following a period of distributions, now money is coming back and there are increasing allocations to Asia,” Lerner said. “2014 and 2015 have been moderately good fundraising years but it is challenging.”
Eaton is currently helping raising funds for a fifth vehicle, a Pan Asia special situations fund that will close within a month, Lerner said. “That will be the biggest,” he noted.
The CDIB Capital fund announcement follows the launch in late July of the GSR Global M&A fund that is seeking to raise $5 billion to invest in technology and industrial companies that offer cross-border opportunities with China, as reported by Private Equity International.
In early July, France’s Idinvest announced the launch of a €1 billion platform backed by Chinese investors that it will manage and invest alongside Idinvest’s funds targeting opportunities in France and Europe. As part of its remit, the platform is intended to facilitate partnerships between European and Chinese businesses.
