Sharon Lim
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co has decided to follow CVC Asia Pacific and quit the consortium bidding for Coles Group after two weeks of due diligence on the Australian retail giant. Coles shares have consequently fallen below the A$17.00 mark for the first time since April.
Emerging private equity market investor Actis has made over $1 billion from the sale of power assets held by Globeleq, a subsidiary of UK investment group CDC, through two transactions.
Southern Cross Ventures Partners is an early stage venture firm that aims to bring Australian innovations to Silicon Valley. It has raised A$170 million, A$30 million shy of its final target.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is looking to the experience of Shusaku Minoda, a retired Japanese banker, to lead its efforts in a market most international buyout groups have had a tough time cracking.
Asia Alternatives, a new fund of fund manager that has its headquarters in Hong Kong, has raised $515 million, exceeding a $450 million hard cap. The fund may have just held its final close but is already invested in more than ten funds focused across 12 Asian countries.
Citigroup has hired Chris Gammons from Deutsche Bank to join its growing Asia financial entrepreneurs group. He will be based in Hong Kong.
Pacific Equity Partners will not give up on Flight Centre, an Australian travel agency it failed to acquire via a public-to-private process just a few months ago. The Australian buyout firm is now offering to acquire a 30 percent interest in the company via a proposed joint venture structure.
Alinta is backing a $6.66 billion takeover offer from Babcock & Brown instead of a rival bid by Macquarie, as the Australian energy utility is convinced the former offers a “high degree of completion certainty.”
Hong Kong-based Baring Private Equity Asia has made two investments totalling about $100 million in China’s steel-related industry, a sector the firm had identified early last year when it was out of favour.
Affinity Equity Partners appears bent on buying out the remaining 16 percent shares it failed to acquire in Australia-listed Colorado via an earlier take-private attempt. The fresh offer is 32 percent higher despite unsatisfactory results by the clothing retailer.