Private Equity Professionals

Apax to open Shanghai office

The global buyout firm also intends to open a second Chinese office in Beijing in 2009.

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London-based Apax Partners will open an office in Shanghai later this year, as well as a second office in Beijing in 2009, as part of its expansion into Greater China.

The opening of Apax’s third Asian office reinforces the firm’s global strategy, and will focus on Chinese and Indian investments to capitalise on the region's growth, it said.

In time, the firm's deal activity is anticipated to be evenly spread between North America, Europe and Asia, Martin Halusa, chief executive of Apax, said in a statement.

The team in China will be led by Richard Zhang, previously a director in management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he advised multinational corporations and Chinese enterprises in the technology and industrial sectors.

In 2005, Apax opened its first Asian office in Hong Kong, followed by its Mumbai office in 2006.

Over the past 10 years, Apax funds’ average annual profit growth rate among its portfolio companies has been 18 percent, of which it attributed 65 percent to top line improvement.