Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, an investment arm of the Wall Street bank, is set to postpone its latest pan-Asian fund after difficulty in raising US$1.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
This is the fourth attempt of the fund, known as Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, to come to the market. Launched a few months ago, at least half the US$1.5 billion was expected to have been raised by this month. But weak global investor sentiment made that too hard a task.
Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia has a track record of investing in a broad range of companies in the Asia-Pacific region, including Ping An Insurance Co and Inner Mongolia Mengniu Dairy, according to data provider S&P Capital IQ.
Morgan Stanley launched its first pan-Asian fund in 1993, raising about US$300 million, says S&P Capital IQ. That was followed by two more rounds in 2005 and 2007, raising US$515 million and US$1.5 billion.
The delay comes as PE funds in Asia are starting to experience downturns coming off a buoyant 2011.
'Even blue-chip company PE firms are finding it quite difficult to do fund-raising these days,' said David Brown, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Greater China Private Equity, which specialises in private-equity consulting. International banks used to be big investors in PE funds, but lately they have been selling their existing holdings in such funds to raise capital to meet more stringent global regulatory requirements, Brown said.