Carlyle amasses $6.55bn for Asia buyout fund

The Carlyle Group has held a final close on its fifth and largest Asia fund, raising $6.55 billion for new economy and healthcare buyouts in the region.

This puts Carlyle Asia Partners V in the second spot among the top 10 pan-Asia focused fundraises, behind KKR’s $9.3 billion Asian Fund III and ahead of KKR’s $6 billion Asian Fund II and Affinity Equity Partners’ $6 billion Fund V.

Unlike these counterparts, Carlyle’s Asia buyout fund will not make investments in Japan. Carlyle has separate Japan-focused buyout funds, the latest of which is the 2013-vintage, ¥119.5 billion ($1.1 billion; €940 million) Carlyle Japan Partners III.

Carlyle Asia Partners V, which had a $5 billion target, is 65 percent larger than its $3.9 billion predecessor.

Fund V attracted large investor demand fromAsia, US, Europe and the Middle East, among them sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and high-net-worth investors, a source with knowledge of the matter told Private Equity International.

Carlyle expects to see “more and larger investment opportunities in the region driven by innovation, attractive demographics, rising consumption and corporate spin-offs”, XD Yang, chairman of Carlyle Asia (ex-Japan) and co-head of Asia buyout, said in a statement announcing the fund close.

Fund V will follow the same strategy as Carlyle’s previous buyout vehicles, investing in consumer and retail, financial services, telecommunications, media and technology, healthcare and industrials.

Carlyle’s Asian private equity platform has invested and committed more than $2.5 billion of equity in Asia Pacific ex-Japan in the last 12 months. Among its investments include iNova Pharmaceuticals and Accolade Wines in Australia; SBI Card and Visionary RCM in India; McDonald’s businesses in mainland China and Hong Kong; OneSmart Education, Tuhu, JD Logistics, Ant Financial and Baidu Financial in China.

Carlyle has invested more than $18.5 billion of equity in the region as of 31 March.