Carlyle Group announced the final close of its Carlyle Asia Partners V buyout fund at $6.55 billion.
A Carlyle news release Thursday said the fund exceeded the firm's target of $5 billion, and came in more than 65% bigger than Carlyle Asia Partners IV, which closed at $3.9 billion in 2014.
The news comes just more than a week after fellow private markets heavyweight Blackstone Group announced the close of its first Asian buyout fund, Blackstone Capital Partners Asia, at roughly $2.3 billion.
The news release noted that Carlyle's private equity platform in Asia had "invested and committed more than $2.5 billion of equity" in the Asia-Pacific region over the past 12 months.
Xiang-Dong Yang, managing director, chairman of Carlyle Asia (ex-Japan) and co-head of Asia buyout, said in the release that Carlyle expects to see "more and larger investment opportunities in the region driven by innovation, attractive demographics, rising consumption and corporate spinoffs."
Institutional investors allocating money to the fund include:
- the $356.5 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento, with a commitment of $250 million;
- the $224.8 billion California State Teachers' Retirement System, West Sacramento, with a commitment of $50 million;
- the $118.9 billion New York State Teachers' Retirement System, Albany, with a $100 million commitment; and
- the $8.3 billion Rhode Island Employees' Retirement System, Providence, with a commitment of $50 million.
