<article><a href="http://www.rrjcap.com/" target="_blank">RRJ Capita</a>l, run by Malaysian brothers Richard and Charles Ong, plans to raise more than $4 billion for its third fund by July-end, enhancing its status as Asia’s leading private equity firm.</article>

<a href="http://www.rrjcap.com/" target="_blank">RRJ Capita</a>l, run by Malaysian brothers Richard and Charles Ong, plans to raise more than $4 billion for its third fund by July-end, enhancing its status as Asia’s leading private equity firm.
If successful, RRJ will still be just short of the Asian record of $6 billion that was raised by <a href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=KKR" target="_blank">KKR</a> for its second Asian buyout fund last year. At the same time, it will enable the company, which has offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, to become one of the largest home grown PE firms in Asia, and also take on Western players in this market.
Executives familiar with the development say RRJ has already got soft commitments of around $3 million for its third fund. More than 50 per cent of commitments are from American pension funds, traditionally large investors in new vehicles of established PE firms, while the rest is from sovereign funds and European pension funds.
The company, run by Malaysian brothers Richard and Charles Ong, plans to deploy its third vehicle, on similar lines as its earlier funds, implying that around 75 per cent of the investments it will make will be in China, with the rest being in South East Asia.
RRJ Capital was set up in 2011, and prior to that Charles Ong was chief investment officer and chief strategy officer of Singapore&#8217;s sovereign wealth fund <a href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Temasek+Holdings" target="_blank">Temasek Holdings</a>, while Richard, a Goldman Sachs alumni, had been running a China-based PE firm – Hopu Capital – which he had set up.
It has raised $2.3 billion as part of its first fund that has as so far achieved a net internal rate of return of more than 20 per cent, and $3.6 billion towards its second vehicle that closed last year and whose rate of return in currently in the mid-20s.
For RRJ, it is raising another vehicle, at a time the industry’s biggest challenge in Asia remains the questions of exits. At the same time, it also comes at a time when PE players are set to see a flood of new deals as a growing number of companies will be seeking capital to restructure and even expand operations,  even as banks retreat and shy away from riskier loans.
With banks becoming more cautious about lending, the big picture is that PEs along with hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds are now becoming the go-to provider of capital for restructuring.
<a href="http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Business_People_g201-Business_Man_With_Growth_Graph_p120458.html">Image:Freedigitalphotos.net</a>

RRJ targets $4b for new Asia fund

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RRJ targets $4b for new Asia fund

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