Carlyle Group, the private-equity firm in which Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Company owns a 7.5 percent stake, is seeking capital for a buyout fund that will invest in Asia, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.
The firm, based in Washington, plans an initial close on Carlyle Asia Partners IV in the second half of the year, one of the people who asked not to be named because the information is not public told Bloomberg.
Christopher Ullman, a Carlyle spokesman, declined to comment, Bloomberg said.
Private-equity firms are gathering capital to take advantage of Asia’s growth. KKR & Company and TPG Capital are raising multibillion-dollar pools targeting the region. Both RRJ Capital Ltd. and CDH Investments Fund Management Company are seeking to amass larger funds than their prior offerings.
Fifty-three pan-Asia funds were attempting to raise a total of US$22.3bn to invest exclusively in the region as of last month, according to data compiled by Preqin a London-based research firm.
Carlyle Group was among the first to announce it had raised a yuan-denominated fund to invest in China. The firm raised RMB2.4bn (US$380m) in the first round of a fund with Beijing’s municipal government in July 2010, after setting up a US$100m joint fund with Fosun Group in Shanghai five months earlier. China increased the Beijing fund to RMB3.2bn last July.
Carlyle Group raised US$2.55bn for its prior fund, Carlyle Asia Partners III, in 2010 after starting the pool in 2007. That fund produced a multiple of 0.8 times invested capital and an internal rate of return of minus 11 percent for the California Public Employees Retirement System as of September 30, according to the pension system’s data.
The Carlyle Asia Partners funds invest in areas including Australia, China, India, South Korea and Southeast Asia, according to the firm’s website. They invest in such industries as financial services, media and telecommunications, manufacturing and consumer products.
Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala bought a 7.5 percent stake for US$1.35bn four years ago.
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