pe, china

Carlyle just closed a huge RMB fund

Check out this week's Fortune... their is a Q&A with Carlyle's CEO.

He says that most of the people working for Carlyle in China are Chinese nationals taught in American schools.

PE in China is a whole different ballgame.

PE funds in China are run by and full of people with VERY high level connections (i.e. family) in the CCP (government). In order to get business done in China, you first and foremost need to know the right people.

PE is essentially non existent in China, or Asia for that fact. It's just that the market is not as developed as the United States'. Some big funds ventured in Japan, and got torched and are now pulling out.

I would say Asia is really still at the "primitive" stages of ECM and DCM right now. Even M&A activity is low. Banks in HK focus of IPOs, and well, China and HK made up 45% of the world's IPO last year, with around $50.4 billion worth of IPOs, while the US only had 54 IPOs and worth only $24 billion.

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/01/07/china-took-the-2009-ipo-crown/tab…

These boys are right; China is basically off limits if you don't speak the language and don't have connections. That said, if you get your foot in the door somehow, your gauranteed big money going forward.