The funding was led by a diverse group of pension funds, sovereign funds, insurers and financial institutions based in Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East. As per VCCircle report, the fund had an original upper limit of $520 million, which was increased due to the strong demand.
NewQuest Asia Fund III will focus on minority and control transactions worth $25 million to $75 million per company, and $50 million to $250 million for portfolio acquisitions. NewQuest Asia Fund II, LP, had a final close in July 2014 with commitments of $326 million through two vehicles.
In March 2014, the firm has appointed Daizong Wang as partner at NewQuest. He will be heading NewQuest’s Beijing office. Daizong joins NewQuest from CVC Capital Partners and previously worked with 3i Group and Goldman Sachs, among others.
Also, NewQuest is looking to augment its presence in India with its Mumbai office expected to be opened by the end of 2016. It specialize in providing alternative liquidity solutions to private equity asset owners, such as financial institutions, corporations, family offices, hedge funds and private equity funds. The firm invests in infrastructure-related sectors including power, roads, construction and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) along with logistics.
NewQuest was established in 2011 and currently manages three funds with aggregate capital commitments of over $1.2 billion. It has acquired stakes in over 40 companies through both single asset and portfolio transactions. In March last year, NewQuest had invested around $96 million in Bangalore-based Ujjivan Financial Services Pvt Ltd, one of leading microfinance institutions in the country, along with CX Partners, CDC and Bajaj Holdings with participation from existing investors IFC and Elevar Equity had also participated in the investment round worth $96 million (Rs 600 crore then).
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