Asian Pvt Equity Funds Jumped In 2007

Asia's private equity industry largely shrugged off last year's global credit crunch, with assets under management, fundraising and investment rising at double-digit levels, an industry publication said on Friday. At the same time, the industry saw pockets of weakness, including a fall in fundraising for Japan and South Korea and a decline in private equity investments in Australia. China has also been a frustration for buyout firms looking to deploy their war chests, Asian Venture Capital Journal (AVCJ) data showed. This year, weakness gripping stock markets could help to fuel private equity activity in Asia, said David Pierce, chief executive of Squadron Capital, which manages portfolios of private equity funds for investors. "Valuations may become much more attractive to private equity investors, and so the funds that have been raised may be put to work in a much more rapid manner," he told an AVCJ briefing. Asian private equity funds under management rose by 14 per cent to $190.7 billion last year, AVCJ researchers said. Private equity investments rose 33 per cent to $84.2 billion last year, while funds raised to invest in the region rose more than 23 percent to $50.9 billion. The value of private equity-backed IPOs rose 21.9 per cent, while sales of private equity-owned companies to other firms or investors more than tripled. "The Western industry has had a huge hit with the credit crisis, but in Asia, things have pretty much continued on a smooth pace," said AVCJ Managing Editor Paul Mackintosh. "A lot of Western money that has been encountering a worse and worse market in the US and Europe is now finding its way over here as Asia becomes a much more attractive story comparatively."