Citicorp Asia, CVC Team To Launch Asia Fund –

Citicorp Capital Asia and CVC Capital Partners are joining forces to raise a pan-Asia buyout fund with a target of $750 million.

CVC Asia Pacific, now in pre-marketing, is one of several new funds looking to buy divisions of cash-strapped conglomerates in the Far East (see story p. 1).

According to Mary Lynn Putney, a managing director of global private equity at Citigroup Corp., the fund will combine the control transaction expertise of CVC Capital, Europe’s largest buyout firm, with the local connections of Citicorp Capital, which for years has been making small expansion capital investments from offices in Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore.

Citigroup, the parent company of CVC Capital, will commit $250 million to the fund, Ms. Putney said.

CVC Capital’s Michael Smith will move to Hong Kong to help run the new fund alongside Vincent Fan, the former head of Citicorp Capital Asia.

Ms. Putney said the recent Asian financial crisis has created an atmosphere in which, for the first time, sources of capital from outside the traditional Asian family business network have significant opportunities to buy into companies.

CVC Capital already has completed buyout transactions in Asia, Ms. Putney said, although she declined to name specific investments.