Telopea launches with China and Australia focus

The Sydney-headquartered firm will seek to raise ‘several hundred million dollars’ each for a private equity and real estate fund which are ‘risk-adjusted to Australia but reward-adjusted to China’.

Telopea Capital Partners, a private equity, real estate and advisory firm, has launched operations from offices in Greater China and Australia.

The Sydney-headquartered firm will invest from two separate funds, the TCP Asia Opportunities Fund, which will focus on mid-market growth investments in Australia and Greater China, and a real estate fund targeting deals in the same region.

Craig Carracher, a founding principal and managing director at Telopea, told PEI Asia the firm was “still in negotiations” on the two funds, which are expected to see official launches in the second half of 2010. He added the funds would be targeting asset vendors and co investment partners with a “family office mindset” and “targeting limited partners from the family office backed fund of fund market, sovereign wealth investment vehicles and family offices.”

Within China, Carracher said the private equity fund would make investments that are “typically aligned with the China story, like mining and consumer goods”, while the real estate fund would seek out partnerships with “Chinese families with China links”.

In addition to China, Carracher said the funds would also look at investments in Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and “certain elements of Vietnam”. However, he stated the funds would primarily focus on China, as the firm was “risk-adjusted to Australia but reward-adjusted to China”.

Telopea Capital Partners is managed by the former investment team of Arctic Capital, an investment company backed by Australia’s Packer family together with a real estate investment team managed by Andrew Kerr, the former managing director of Merrill Lynch real estate in Australia. The firm currently has six members in its executive team and offices in Hong Kong, Beijing and Sydney.