Fundraising

The new vehicle will be the world’s largest buyout fund, setting a new record as rival firms prepare close in on similar megafunds. Already, the new fund is 25 percent committed to deals.

Secondaries pioneer Jeremy Coller is targeting almost $4bn for his eponymous firm’s fifth fund after delivering good early returns from his latest vehicle.

The fund closing by Europe’s largest property fund manager comes as research shows €95 billion was invested in European property in the first half of 2006.

Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group has closed its second Japanese buyout fund on $1.9 billion.

The oversubscribed fund will focus on early stage IT companies in the US, China and Japan.

A consortium led by the Australian bank has paid $1.6 billion for Pittsburgh utility Duquesne Light Holdings.

PandoraTV, a Korean internet video portal, has received $6.4 million in funding from a consortium of three venture capital groups.

The London-based buyout firm is closing the biggest fund of all time, although its time in the sun is likely to brief with KKR, Texas Pacific and Blackstone all scheduled to hold final closes soon that will re-write the record book.

After just four months, TDR Capital has raised €1.75bn for the successor to its €550m debut fund.

Sequoia Capital India has injected an additional $10 million into a software testing company following its first investment of two years ago.