Top China Deal Maker Takes Aim at Buyouts With New Fund
March 16 2017 - 5:32AM
Dow Jones News
By Rick Carew
HONG KONG--One of China's top deal makers is setting up a new
private-equity firm, Nexus Point Partners, that is focused on
buyouts, according to people familiar with the situation.
Kuo-Chuan Kung is setting up Nexus Point in Hong Kong, after
leaving another firm he co-founded, MBK Partners LP--which is now
one of Asia's biggest homegrown private-equity firms, with more
than $10 billion invested across the region. Mr. Kung led MBK's
investments in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Mr. Kung is being joined at Nexus Point by Richard J. Wong,
formerly Morgan Stanley's co-head of mergers and acquisitions in
Asia, and Min Li, who until recently led Bain Capital Asia's health
care practice, the people said.
They are among a number of prominent China financiers who have
recently launched new funds, including KKR & Co.'s former China
head David Liu. He started his own investment firm. Many are
leaving well-established large firms and striking out on their own,
in an effort to have more flexibility over the types of deals they
can pursue. They also can get a bigger share of the profits from
the deals, according to industry participants.
At MBK, Mr. Kung focused on taking controlling stakes in
companies that were positioned to benefit from growth in Chinese
consumer demand. He led a lucrative buyout of Taiwan's largest
cable-television operator, China Network Systems, and reached a
deal in July 2015 to sell it to a consortium of investors led by
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co. and Morgan Stanley's private
equity arm for $2.3 billion. He worked closely on that deal with
Morgan Stanley's Mr. Wong.
Mr. Kung also invested in Chinese waste-to-energy business GSE
Investment Corp. and later sold control of that to state-owned
Beijing Enterprises Holdings Ltd. at a profit in December 2014.
Nexus Point hasn't yet set a target for its first fundraising,
according to the people familiar with the matter.
Write to Rick Carew at rick.carew@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 16, 2017 05:17 ET (09:17 GMT)
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