Citic's PE branch to complete $900 million fund

Citic Private Equity Funds Management is set to complete fundraising for a US$900 million fund, the Wall Street Journal reported. The newspaper said that sources familiar with the situation claim that fundraising for the US dollar-denominated fund will close within days, making the private equity (PE) branch of the financial conglomerate Citic one of China’s largest PE firms. The firm indicated that it chose to raise capital via a dollar-denominated fund – bucking a recent trend towards renminbi-denominated funds – in order to tap demand from international investors, whose scope of action within China is tightly regulated. While Citic’s top brass is somewhat new to PE, the conglomerate can take advantage of local regulatory leeway and holds significant sway with China’s banking authorities.