Capital Today reaches $400m hard cap

Capital Today, a Shanghai-headquartered growth capital firm, is to close its second private equity fund on its $400 million hard cap shortly, three sources have confirmed to PEI Asia.

The firm was originally targeting commitments of $300 million for the fund, but it was oversubscribed, the sources said.

Capital Today did not respond to a request for comment.

Capital Today began raising capital for Fund II in 2009 and registered a $183 million first close in December. The speed with which the firm has reached its final target is an “impressive result”, one of the sources said.

The firm’s first fund also exceeded its target. That fund was targeting $200 million and closed on $280 million in November 2006.

Capital Today has made 13 investments so far, according to its website. These investments include Kung Fu, a fast food chain; DQY, a branded egg producer; Sinoway, a herbal skincare producer; Yi Feng Pharmacy, a chain of pharmacy stores; ChinaHR, an online recruiting company; Jing Dong, an online retailer of IT and digital products; and Tu Dou, a video-sharing website.

The firm was established in 2005 by Kathy Xu, who was formerly an investment professional at Baring Private Equity Asia, a pan-Asian growth capital firm.

A number of large USD-denominated China-focused private equity funds have closed in recent months. Earlier this month, Beijing-based New Horizon Capital closed its third USD-denominated private equity fund on its $750 million. 

In February, CITIC Capital closed CITIC Capital China Partners II, its second China-focused buyout fund, on $925 million, comfortably surpassing its $750 million target. The fund was more than double the size of its predecessor fund, which closed on $425 million in 2006.

CDH Investments has also recently wrapped up fundraising for CDH Fund IV, with subscriptions greatly in excess of the fund's $1.4 billion hard cap.

On the RMB fund side, January saw Beijing-based CITIC Private Equity Funds Management close its maiden private equity fund on RMB9 billion (€940 million; $1.3 billion), making it the largest RMB fund ever raised.