Bizness Lounge

Carlyle Group LP (CG), the world’s second-largest manager of investment alternatives to stocks and bonds, raised $3.9 billion for its fourth Asia buyout fund as it bets economic growth in the region will drive deals.
The final amount exceeds a targeted $3.5 billion, bringing the firm’s assets under management in Asia funds including Japan to $13.6 billion, the Washington-based company said in a statement today. The latest pool is 53 percent bigger than the $2.55 billion compiled for its previous Asia fund in 2010.
“We believe that the regional economy will continue to grow much faster than the rest of the world,” X.D. Yang, co-head of the Carlyle Asia buyout team, said in the statement. The “rising middle class and their demand for better products and services are
key drivers of these investment opportunities.”
Global investment firms are amassing new funds in Asia as previous rounds raised from around 2005 to 2008 approach the end of their investment cycles. CVC Capital Partners Ltd. gathered $3.5 billion for a fund in the region this year and TPG Capital raised $3.3 billion.
Carlyle’s fund, which invests in Asia outside of Japan, focuses on the consumer and retail, financial services, telecommunications and health-care industries. It has already invested in ADT Korea, a security-services company, and Ganji.com, a Chinese online classified-advertisement operator, according to the statement.

KKR, CVC

Carlyle started approaching investors for its latest fund in 2012, and TPG began compiling its sixth Asian pool in the same year. The firms had been slower to gather fresh capital than peers including KKR & Co. and CVC. Fort Worth, Texas-based TPG sped up the process and completed the fund after overhauling its senior management, two people with knowledge of the matter said in April.
KKR raised $6 billion for its second Asian fund in July last year, making it the largest private-equity fund across the region, according to the firm. It was also the fastest finish for a pool of its size in Asia, after marketing began in 2012.
CVC started raising cash for its fund in June 2013 and finished eight months later after exceeding its $3 billion target, a person with knowledge of the matter said in February. The firm said in May that it compiled $3.5 billion.
Blackstone Group LP (BX), the biggest manager of alternative assets, is putting together a $4 billion pool for real estate in Asia. The New York-based company hasn’t raised a buyout fund specifically for the region since it opened its first Asia office in 2005.