Actis hires ex-GIC executive as China head(4)

Actis, UK-based emerging markets private equity specialist, has appointed Lim Meng Ann as a partner to head up its China operations. Lim is leaving Singapore’s GIC Special Investments, which he joined in 1997 after a 4-year stint with International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank.

At the Singaporean institution he was executive vice-president responsible for the agency’s investment activities in Greater China.

Lim replaces Chin Bay Chong, who left Actis at the start of the year, ending months of speculation. Bay Chong had been with the company since 2002 and sat on the management committee. Lim himself is linked to a number of high profile GIC deals in China.

Paul Fletcher, Actis’s senior partner said: “Meng Ann was responsible for a number of notable transactions, such as CNOOC, the dominant oil and gas company in offshore China; and Industrial Bank, the 10th largest nationwide commercial bank in China; and Kingsoft, China’s leading application software company.”

Lim has held board seats in companies such as CNOOC and is also a non executive director of Li Ning, a well-known Chinese sports brand named after its founder, the country’s Olympic champion gymnast.

Fletcher said Actis has invested over $100 million in China in the past 12 months and hopes to grow its investment amount “considerably.”