Drew Wilson

Deal value was down significantly across Asia in 2012 -- except in Korea where it increased. Hae-Joon Joseph Lee, partner & senior managing director of IMM Private Equity in Seoul, gives some detail on the market.

Gen2 Partners expects to form a partnership with London-listed China Private Equity Investments to address growing European investor interest in China.

The placement agent has hired two executives for its new Singapore office, its first in Asia.

The Beijing-based firm wants to raise its next RMB fund in Hong Kong as it takes advantage of an experimental currency hub set up by Chinese authorities.

Carlyle has become the largest shareholder in a China-based mid-market hotel chain.

The UK-based firm has increased its pace of dealmaking in Asia in recent months with five deals, including what it claims is the biggest buyout in Hong Kong.

The biggest challenge for Korean LPs looking to invest abroad is that of up-scaling their private equity allocation in a short space of time, panellists at PEI's Global Alternative Investment Forum said.

The Korea Teachers Pension Fund is among a clutch of Korean investors looking to increase exposure to private equity overseas, according to a panel at the PEI Global Alternative Investment Forum 2012 in Seoul.

The de-leveraging of assets worth trillions of dollars is presenting key opportunities for Asian private equity firms, according to BlackRock executives Joseph Pacini and Johnathan Seeg.

Scale and institutional best practice are among the qualities sovereign wealth funds require of fund managers, Scott Kalb, former CIO of Korea's sovereign fund, said at the PE Asia Forum in Hong Kong.