Global investment firm EQT has closed EQT Mid Market Asia III Fund, at $800m.
The fund is backed by a global blue-chip investor base, including pension funds, insurance companies and fund-of-funds. The commitments are globally distributed with approximately 48% from the Nordics, 31% from rest of Europe, 19% from Asia, 1% from North America and 1% from the rest of the world.
Led by Martin Mok, Partner and Head of the EQT Mid Market Asia advisory team, EQT Mid Market Asia III seeks to make control or co-control investments in companies in Greater China and Southeast Asia with significant growth and development potential. It aims to create industry leaders through development themes such as sales growth, strategic repositioning, digitalization or participation in industry consolidations. The sector focus in the region follows EQT’s overall sector approach, which is composed of Healthcare, Services, Consumer, TMT and Industrial Technology.
The fund has already made four acquisitions:
– Long-Spring Education (an education group in Yunnan province, China),
– GPA Global (a premium packaging and display solutions provider in China),
– ILA Vietnam (English language training service provider in Vietnam), and
– Clinical Innovations (provider of single-use clinician-preferred products for hospitals’ Labor & Delivery department and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, based in the US with growth prospects for its product line in China and adjacent Asian markets).
EQT opened its first office in Asia, in Hong Kong, over ten years ago, and since then more than USD 1.2 billion has been deployed through investments in 18 companies in the region. Examples of exits or partial exits are Japan Home Centre (housewares retail chain in Hong Kong and Singapore), LBX Pharmacy (pharmacy chain in China), Classic Fine Foods (pan-Asian fine foods services company) and I-MED (diagnostic imaging provider in Australia).
Other offices has now in Shanghai and Singapore.
FinSMEs
11/05/2018