TR Capital raises its biggest-ever fund for Asian secondaries

TR Capital, one of Asia’s biggest direct secondaries firms, has smashed the target of its fourth fund and is expanding its operations in the region, Secondaries Investor has learned.

The Hong Kong-headquartered firm has exceeded the $300 million target for TR Capital IV, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The fund has hit its $350 million hard-cap and is expected to hold its final close shortly, one of the sources said.

A spokesman for TR Capital declined to comment.

The firm is also understood to have opened its fourth global office with a bureau in Shenzhen on the Chinese mainland. The office will be mainly for deal-sourcing purposes and will be staffed with a combination of both existing and new professionals.

The office adds to the firm’s presence in Shanghai and Mumbai, in addition to its headquarters.

A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission from April noted that TR Capital IV had raised $227.77 million since making its first sale in May last year. Sixpoint Partners is listed as a placement agent on the fundraise.

The capital-raising comes 10 months after Secondaries Investor reported that TR Capital had backed a novel yuan-to-dollar fund restructuring involving Beijing-headquartered growth and VC manager Kinzon Capital. In that deal, which was worth around $100 million in net asset value including follow-on capital for new investments, seven companies were moved into a separate vehicle in a process that gave Kinzon access to US dollar capital.

Lazard advised on that process.

Yuan-to-dollar restructurings should represent around half of the deals in China that TR Capital will invest in from its Fund IV, managing partner Frédéric Azemard told Secondaries Investor at the time.

TR Capital’s raise comes as fundraising for dedicated Asia-Pacific-focused secondaries vehicles experiences a five-year lull. Funds to hold final closes in the first three months of this year raised around $700 million – shy of the $4.8 billion raised for full year 2019, Secondaries Investor data show.

The region accounted for 20 percent of deal volume last year by seller’s geography, up from 10 percent the prior year, according to UBS’s 2020 Secondary Market Survey and Outlook.