CITIC PE launches USD fund

CITIC Private Equity Funds Management has launched its second fund, a US dollar-denominated China-focused fund targeting commitments of between $500 million and $800 million from outside China, an industry source has told PEI Asia.

CITIC PE declined to comment.

The fund follows the success of the firm’s maiden fund, the CITIC Mianyang Private Equity Fund, which closed on RMB9 billion in January, setting a new record for China’s RMB fund industry.

China’s National Council for Social Security Fund (NSSF) was the single biggest investor in the Mianyang fund, according to a statement released at the time of the close. In an interview with PEI Asia in March, Wu Yibing, president of CITIC PE, said LPs in the fund fell into four major categories: Chinese financial institutions (including the NSSF); state-owned enterprises; listed companies; and private enterprises.

He added that of a total of 38 LPs, the majority fell in the latter two categories, and that more than 50 percent of the money raised came from the private sector.

The Mianyang fund has so far invested in 12 deals, the most recent being the RMB330 million acquisition of a minority stake in home-shopping television business, Happigo, alongside Hony Capital and Sequoia Capital China at the beginning of April.

CITIC Private Equity was launched in June 2008 as the private equity arm of state-backed CITIC Securities.