CHINA> National
![]() |
US private equity firms eye mainland market again
By Bi Xiaoning (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-22 11:13 US venture capital groups appear to have again put China in their sights, said a report from UK-based Mergermarket Group, an intelligence provider on mergers, acquisitions and private equity. According to the report, the most high-profile deal this month was US private equity giant Bain Capital's move to acquire a minority stake in Gome, the Chinese electrical appliance retailer, for about $400 million.
"A number of private equity houses have looked to play their hands, perhaps suggesting international buyout firms are now ditching their wait-and-see approach to the Chinese market," said Douglas Robinson, editorial research analyst with Mergermarket Group. The US private equity firm Warburg Pincus announced the expiration of an option it held to swap convertible bonds in Huiyuan Juice this month. In conjunction with two other private equity houses and Danone, the French food retailer, Warburg Pincus purchased a 35 percent stake in Huiyuan for $200 million in the second half of 2006 - an investment that would have proved lucrative if Coca-Cola's $2.4 billion bid for Huiyuan had been successful. The buyout group continues to hold investments worth over $400 million in eleven Chinese businesses. Elsewhere, the private equity group TPG Capital is reportedly set to sell the 11 percent stake it holds in Shenzhen Development Bank to Ping An Insurance, the Chinese financial services group. It has been rumored that if the deal goes ahead, TPG will see a significant return on its investment - the group spent $145 million buying an 18 percent stake in the bank in late 2004, with Ping An reportedly now offering around $992 million for a portion of that. TPG has already put some of the profit to work through a purchase of $80 million in convertible bonds in Daphne International, the Chinese shoe retailer, which equates to about 14.5 percent of the company. But not all of TPG's forays into the Asian market have been successful. Newbridge Capital, TPG's Asian arm, will almost certainly take a hit on its $615 million 2006 investment in Taishin Financial, Taiwan's third-largest financial services firm, which announced last month that it will cut its capital by 6.8 percent following losses of T$5.4 billion last year. The Warburg Pincus-Huiyuan transaction shows political considerations play a very important role in such deals, said the report. Indeed, TPG is looking to exit from Shenzhen Development Bank in order to allay government sensitivities that it sold the State assets too cheaply, the report said. "It is perhaps unsurprising that US buyout firms are now beginning to actively eye plays in China. After all, the country has a population of more than three times the size of the US, a rapidly burgeoning middle class and an economy which has arguably avoided the worst effects of the global financial crisis," said Robinson. |
主站蜘蛛池模板: 新民市| 加查县| 义乌市| 大足县| 慈利县| 汝阳县| 连平县| 林周县| 广南县| 农安县| 崇义县| 宜良县| 沁阳市| 厦门市| 吉木萨尔县| 文昌市| 湖北省| 武宣县| 将乐县| 柳河县| 珠海市| 广丰县| 织金县| 尉氏县| 永兴县| 阿巴嘎旗| 平邑县| 察雅县| 景泰县| 阿拉尔市| 库尔勒市| 张家界市| 荣昌县| 贵溪市| 临夏县| 峨山| 九龙县| 凤庆县| 新泰市| 灵武市| 微山县|