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Asian and Australasian private equity tops historic $100bn mark

Asian and Australasian private equity firms are now managing in excess of $100bn of capital for the first time, surpassing even the boom years of 1999 and 2000, according to research released by the Asian Venture Capital Journal.

Private equity firms across the region raised more than $5bn in the first six months of 2004, compared to $3.32bn for the whole for 2003 and $2.99bn for 2002. Australian fundraisers were particularly impressive, raising $806m so far this year, more than four times the annual haul for 2003. Meanwhile, Japan continues its impressive run with almost $3bn of funds raised so far this year for domestic investments, compared to $1.36bn for the whole of 2003.

These figures do not include a number of mega-funds that are currently being raised. Several $1bn-plus funds including Nikko Citigroup Japan Fund, CVC Asia Pacific Fund 2 and JP Morgan Partners Asia II are due to close in the coming months, suggesting that the final year-end 2004 figures may challenge the $18bn raised in 2000.

So is this a bubble or the real thing? 'Asian private equity has always, and will continue to serve up a volatile brew,' said Asian Venture Capital Journal's publisher Dan Schwartz. 'But with markets like India and China generating real wealth through global value add, and countries like Korea and Japan continuing to restructure, the time seems right to initiate an Asian investment strategy.'

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