News & Analysis

NewQuest beats Fund III hard-cap and plans India office

The direct secondaries firm, which bought the India-focused portfolio of Draper Fisher Jurvetson earlier this year, will open its second overseas office in Mumbai by year-end.

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Hong Kong-based direct secondaries firm NewQuest Capital Partners has held a final close on its latest fund above its original hard-cap and said it plans to expand with an office in Mumbai.

The firm raised $540.5 million for NewQuest Asia Fund III, exceeding its $500 million target and initial $520 million hard-cap.

Limited partners include pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurers and financial institutions in Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East.

Fund III was launched in the second half of 2015 with UBS as its placement agent. It will invest in companies across emerging markets in Asia, committing about $25 million to $75 million per transaction, and $50 million to $250 million for portfolio transactions, NewQuest said.

Its predecessor fund, NewQuest Asia Fund II, held a final close in July 2014 on $326 million, above its $300 million target.

The firm plans to open its India office by the end of the year. Partner Bonnie Lo said the firm has invested over $100 million of Fund II in India and its pipeline remains “very strong”.

Lo added the firm is close to deploying all of Fund II and will start deploying Fund III soon.

NewQuest recently bought the India-focused assets of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. That deal is said to include stakes in travel website Cleartrip, electronic recycling management firm Attero Recycling and energy company Bharat Light and Power.

“With IPO markets continuing to be choppy, and trade sale markets remaining underdeveloped, NewQuest is uniquely positioned to provide tailored liquidity solutions to direct private equity investors for single assets or across a portfolio of assets,” Darren Massara, managing partner at NewQuest, said.

In March, the firm hired Daizong Wang, a former managing director at CVC Capital Partners, to set up its Beijing office.

The firm manages over $1.2 billion in aggregate capital commitments across three funds and targets investments in China, India, southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea and Australia.