•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

Hong Kong. Affinity Equity Partners, an Asia-focused private equity company founded by former top UBS bankers, is working on a plan to raise a new multi-billion-dollar buyout fund to tap more deals in the fast-growing region, sources said on Monday.

The company, founded in 2002 by K.Y. Tang, former chairman of UBS Capital, Asia Pacific, aimed to exceed the size of its most recent fund — Affinity Asia Pacific Fund III at $2.8 billion — for the fourth fund, the sources said.

Major institutional investors, known as limited partners, in Affinity, had been briefed on the plans, although formal fund-raising road shows would start in the second half, said the sources familiar with the matter.

Affinity’s limited partners include many US and European pension funds.

The sources declined to be identified as the fund-raising plan was private and confidential. Affinity was not immediately available for comment.

Affinity was initially branded as a South Korea-focused investment company due party to Tang and his team’s long-time deal-making experience and connections in Asia’s No.4 economy.

In 2009, Affinity joined hands with US buyout giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for the $1.8 billion acquisition of South Korea’s Oriental Brewery from Anheuser-Busch InBev. It was Asia’s biggest private equity deal last year.

But Affinity’s fourth fund would focus more on new markets in Southeast Asia, like resource-rich Indonesia, the sources said.

In late 2009, Affinity opened an office in Jakarta and hired Inghie Kwik as its country head. Kwik, a well-connected local deal-maker, worked for Morgan Stanley as head of its investment banking business in Indonesia.



Reuters