CVC Capital Partners reportedly secured a $3.5 billion first close for its sixth Asia fund in end-2022. The fund is also said to have set a hard cap of $6.5 billion, Mergermarket reported on Wednesday.
CVC declined to comment.
In December 2022, the CVC Capital Partners Asia VI fund received a $165 million commitment from Oregon Investment Council, which oversees the $94 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement System. It also earlier attracted a C$400 million ($300 million) commitment from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
The predecessor fund closed at its hard cap of $4.5 billion in 2020, exceeding its original target of $4 billion.
Fund V has so far delivered a 26% net IRR and 1.2x multiple for the California Public Employees Retirement System, which committed $200 million to the vehicle, according to the US pension fund’s website.
It also generated roughly the same IRR for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System as of June 2022.
CVC’s Asia private equity strategy is focused on control, co-control and structured minority investments in high-quality businesses in core consumer and services sectors across Asia. Typical enterprise values are between $250 million and $1.5 billion.
The Asia strategy currently manages 9 billion euros worth of assets across 27 active investments, such as Chinese pharmacy chain Xi’an Yikang, Japanese home tutoring services provider TRY Group, Indonesia’s SOHO Global Health, chemical company Sajjan India, Thai non-bank financial services firm Ngern Tid Lor, Vietnam-based Phuong Chau Hospital, and Malaysian investment manager Affin Hwang Asset Management.
CVC was also reportedly considering exit options for gaming hardware firm Razer and Malaysian funeral services provider Nirvana Asia Ltd.
There has been continuing interest from global investors in the Asian market. Last September, Baring Private Equity Asia, which is now part of Swiss private equity group EQT, closed its eighth fund at $11.2 billion — the second largest vehicle dedicated to the region after the $15-billion KKR Asian Fund IV.
Meanwhile, other funds of the same targeted size as CVC’s sixth fund include Carlyle Asia Partners V, PAG Asia III, Affinity Asia Pacific Fund V, and reportedly Bain Capital Asia V.