CITIC PE to market $2bn fund before year-end – exclusive

Chinese private equity firm CITIC PE is understood to be targeting $2 billion for its latest China fund and will launch the marketing effort before the year is out, Private Equity International has learned.

CITIC PE focuses on buyout opportunities across six sectors: technology and internet, industrial and energy, financial and business services, consumer and leisure, medical and health, and real estate. At $2 billion CPE China Fund III would be significantly larger than its $1.3 billion predecessor. China Life Insurance, AP Fonden 2, Pantheon International and University of Oklahoma Foundation are some of CITIC PE’s past investors, according to PEI data.

The firm is associated with state-backed CITIC Group, whose affiliates include CITIC Securities, China’s largest investment bank, and CITIC Capital Partners, a globally-focused private equity firm that makes China-related investments primarily in the US, Japan and China.

It emerged last week that Réal Desrochers, former head of private equity at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, had joined Beijing-based CITIC PE as a managing director in April. The appointment was first reported by PE Hub, citing Desrochers’ profile on networking site LinkedIn, though details of his role remained unclear at press time.

Desrochers is a veteran of private equity investing, having spent 11 years at Canadian pension CDPQ and 11 years at the California State Teachers’ Retirement System. He left the latter in 2009 and spent a year as the chief investment officer of Saudi sovereign wealth fund Sanabil before moving to CalPERS, where spent six years running its $45 billion private equity portfolio.

Desrochers and CITIC PE did not return requests for comment.

– Marine Cole contributed to this report.