Beijing's Hopu Investment Management Co. recently made a comeback in the private equity game after a two-year hiatus. According to Wall Street Journal, chairman and founder Fang Fenglei led Hopu in raising a new fund, and indicated an option for the size of the new fund to be increased.

Hopu is a firm with USD1.1 billion assets under management.

Fenglei, formerly a partner at the Goldman and Sachs Group, established the private equity investment firm in 2008. He was joined by senior banker Bi Mingjian and former China Investment Corp. managing director Cliff Chau in creating the new fund, a Wall Street Journal source said.

Hopu's first USD2.5 billion fund mobilized foreign capital to invest in Chinese state-owned firms and projects. Hopu also backed companies from banks to iron mines. In 2009, it paid the Royal Bank of Scotland Group USD400 million for a portion of its stake in Bank of China Ltd. Later, the firm led a consortium that paid USD7.3 billion for part of Bank of America Corp.'s stake in China Construction Bank Corp.