NewQuest Capital Partners, a Hong Kong-based secondaries private equity boutique, announced the final close Monday of its fourth dedicated secondaries fund, NewQuest Asia Fund IV, with commitments of $1 billion.
The firm, which was spun out of Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Asian private equity team in 2011, said in a news release that the $1 billion total exceeded its initial target of $850 million.
Darren Massara, NewQuest's managing partner, said in the news release that the broader secondaries market "continues to see positive momentum as private equity owners actively manage their portfolios to seek liquidity."
The $210 billion Albany-based New York State Common Retirement Fund committed $20 million to NewQuest Asia Fund IV in August through the NYAI Co Investment Fund III.
In the same news release, NewQuest announced it has hired Nitin Agarwal as a managing director in the firm's Mumbai office, run by Amit Gupta, partner and head of India and Southeast Asia.
The position is a new one, an addition Mr. Massara called "timely, as we have a lot of work to do" in India over the coming months and years. In the news release he called India, where the firm has completed $350 million in transactions over the past two years, "a key component of our overall strategy."
Mr. Agarwal comes to NewQuest from CLSA's India private equity arm, where he served as managing director and co-head. A CLSA spokesman couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
