Siren of emerging markets is still strong for PE firms

Emerging markets continue their strong allure for private equity and their limited partners, even while funds and their investors begin to move away from both China and India as preferred destinations.

According to 2012 statistics released Tuesday, Feb. 5, by the Washington trade group Emerging Markets Private Equity Association, fundraising last year totaled $40.3 billion, a modest 5% increase over 2011. Tellingly, China-specific funds dropped 35% to $10.8 billion, while India-dedicated funds fell 24% to $2.1 billion. Indian fundraising is off more than 70% from its 2008 peak.

Russian funds raised $357 million last year. That represented more than double 2011 figures, but Russia remains an also-run in the world of emerging markets funds.

Pan-Asian funds and even more general emerging markets funds made up the difference, EMPEA figures show. The $40.3 billion represents 20% of global private equity fundraising, the largest percentage ever for those type of funds.

Private equity investments in emerging markets showed an even more dramatic shift, according to EMPEA. Capital deployed in China last year dropped 33% to $7.1 billion, while Indian investments fell a whopping 57% to $2.7 billion. Brazil investments, by contrast, jumped 78% to $4.4 billion, although that figure is still less than investment totals Brazil racked up in 2007 and 2010.

Emerging markets investments last year totaled $23.7 billion, a $3.2 billion drop from 2011. However, investments in countries outside BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) totaled $8.3 billion, a 16% gain. EMPEA cited Chile and Malaysia as logging significant increases in the number of investments.

The single biggest private equity investment took place in Brazil, where a consortium led by BTG Pactual SA invested $1.23 billion in oil rigs operator Sete Brasil Participações SA. Asia's two biggest private equity emerging markets investments last year both took place in South Korea, according to EMPEA: a $1.06 billion investment in Kyobo Life Insurance Co., representing a 24% stake, by a consortium of private equity; and a $1.05 billion acquisition by MBK Partners of the water purifications company Woongjin Coway Co.

Like private equity fundraising globally, emerging markets represent more and more the have's and the have not's. According to EMPEA, the 10 largest emerging markets funds last year represented 55% of all capital raised. That included Capital International's $3 billion CIPEF VI fund, the largest pan-emerging markets fund yet. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP closed a $3 billion Asian regional fund in 2012 as well.

Middle-market funds, by contrast, had a fairly dismal year in emerging markets. Only 30 such funds closed their fundraising in 2012, the worst year since EMPEA began to track fundraising in 2006.

In announcing its 2012 statistical report, EMPEA highlighted the fundraising activities in Southeast Asia, where 13 funds raised $1.4 billion. While that figure still pales in comparison to India, China and Brazil, and lags Turkey and South Africa, it's still significant, EMPEA believes. "Southeast Asia will be a region to watch in 2013 as private equity firms deploy capital," the group said in a statement.