Fundraising

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.

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.

Spectacular early returns from its third fund have helped Cinven, a European large cap buyout group, to a record fundraising but rival firm Permira is hard on its heels.

The buyout giant, currently in the market with its 2006 Fund, has set a ceiling for the vehicle that, if reached, will put KKR in the same size stratosphere as Blackstone and Texas Pacific.

Dutch bank ABN AMRO’s infrastructure fund has bought ESP Gas Pipeline Group ahead of the fund’s second close later this year.

Following the implication of yet another Vogo executive in the Korean government’s investigation of Lone Star’s ownership of Korea Exchange Bank, the Seoul-based private equity firm has halted an ongoing fund marketing process.

The increasingly global buyout firm is evaluating setting out to raise as much as $2bn next year, according to sources.