CICC Capital, the private equity (PE) fund management platform of Hong Kong-listed investment bank China International Capital Corporation (CICC), has tied up with Korea’s cross-border investment firm Ascent Capital to set up a private equity investment platform with a total corpus of $3 billion.
CICC Ascent is set to seek opportunities across technology and consumption industries in Korea and China.
The partnership comes in at a time when CICC Capital is ramping up its efforts to develop its overseas markets. In March this year, the firm had forged a tie-up with global pharmaceutical and biotechnology giant AstraZeneca to launch a global healthcare fund that has made the first close at over 2.2 billion yuan ($345 million).
“Through the joint investment fund, not only will we expect it can help Korea’s companies enter to China market, but also we hope the Korean enterprises can introduce new technology and business models to China and society,” said Ascent Capital CEO Bingyin Piao in a statement.
The Seoul-based Ascent Capital specializes in cross-border investments in Asia, covering asset management, investment banking, and corporate restructuring.
CICC Capital manages RMB- and USD-denominated funds in areas of venture capital, growth, buyout, fund of funds (FOF), and distressed investments. At the end of 2020, it recruited more than 300 investment professionals and managed over 350 billion yuan ($54.1) in total assets under management (AUM).
Recently, CICC Capital made headlines when it made big-ticket investments in two semiconductor firms – DERA and GTA Semiconductor – that raked in a total of 8 billion yuan ($1.26 billion).