Asia Private Equity Weekly News, July 15, 2013

HONG KONG, July 15 (Reuters) - News and developments in Asiaprivate equity from Reuters News for the week ending July 12.

JULY 12

GERMAN BATHROOM fixtures maker Grohe has attracted takeoverinterest from Thailand's Siam Cement and Switzerland's Geberit,people familiar with the process said, in what could be Europe'slargest private equity deal of the year, with the privatecompany said to be worth around 4 billion euros ($5 billion).

THE $4 billion loan backing Chinese pork producer ShuanghuiInternational's $4.7 billion bid for US meat processorSmithfield Foods has raised $5 billion from banks so farand could rise to $9 billion, banking sources said.

ACTIVIST INVESTOR Starboard Value LP said it hired financialadvisers to explore alternative deals for Smithfield, which inlate May agreed to a $4.7 billion sale to Hong Kong-basedShuanghui International.

JULY 11

PROFITS FROM China's private equity deals have fallen since2007, a new industry report says, leading to a sharp decline infunds for small and mid-size companies in the world's secondlargest economy.

PRIVATE EQUITY firm KKR & Co, fresh from completinga record $6 billion Asia fund, wants to spend a significantportion of its money in Japan, the firm's head of Japan said.

GOODMAN GROUP and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board(CPPIB) said they had increased their equity allocation toGoodman China Logistics Holding (GCLH) by $500 million, with$400 million contributed by CPPIB and $100 million by Goodman,bringing the total equity allocated to GCLH to $1.5 billion.

JULY 10

A RECORD $6 billion Asia fund announced by U.S. privateequity firm KKR will be deployed at a time when an economicslowdown and emerging market sell-off has knocked the overallvalue of Asia Pacific corporations to historic lows.

INDIA'S KEDAARA Capital, co-founded by Singapore-basedsovereign fund Temasek Holdings' former India head, isset to raise about $500 million, sources with direct knowledgeof the matter said, at a time when first-time funds in Asia arestruggling to raise capital.

PRIVATE EQUITY investment firm HarbourVest Partners said ithad raised $3.6 billion for its Dover Street VIII fund, morethan originally targeted due to strong demand.

INDIA'S E-COMMERCE company Flipkart said it has raised $200million from South African technology group Naspers Ltd and private equity funds Tiger Global and AccelPartners.

SPEEDCAST GROUP said it had raised a $55 million creditfacility to finance its acquisition of satellite communicationsservices company Pactel International, and to refinance debtheld by TA Associates, SpeedCast's controlling shareholder.

JULY 8

CITI VENTURE Capital International, the private equity armof Citigroup, is in talks to buy a majority stake inIndia's Sansera Engineering for about 3.4 billion rupees ($56million), two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

MALAYSIA-BASED private equity firm Navis Capital said it hassold industrial valve specialist Callidus Process Solutions toPon Holding Australia. Navis sold Callidus for around A$75million to A$100 million, making a return of over two times onits initial 2010 investment, according to a source withknowledge of the matter.

JULY 7

FORMER STANDARD Chartered chief executive MervynDavies is forming a consortium of sovereign wealth funds andfinancial institutions to buy as much as half of Britain's 20billion pound ($29.77 billion) stake in Lloyds Banking Group, Sky News reported.

JULY 6

CARLYLE GROUP backed New Century Real EstateInvestment Trust has raised HK$676 million ($87.2million) from a trimmed Hong Kong initial public offering, afterpricing the float at the bottom of the indicative range, IFRreported.