News and developments in Asia private equity from Reuters News for the week ending June 8.

JUNE 7

CANADA'S ONTARIO Teachers Pension Plan beat out Affinity Equity Partners as the preferred bidder for a stake worth $398 million in South Korea's unlisted Kyobo Life Insurance , local media reported.

APAX PARTNERS LLP has lost or terminated more than half of its senior dealmakers over the past five years, a high level of turnover. Some investors say this is a concern as they decide whether to invest in a new fund that Apax, one of the world's largest private equity firms, is hoping will raise 9 billion euros ($11.2 billion).

JUNE 6

TPG CAPITAL has shuffled its Asia senior management team as the global powerhouse with $48 billion in assets fights for investor dollars in the region with private equity rivals KKR, Carlyle and RRJ Capital.

FACTBOX-Buyout firms fund raisings in Asia

BLACKSTONE GROUP has raised its exposure to former Citadel trader Nick Taylor by putting up another $50 million to co-invest with his Asia-focused hedge fund, sources said, a move that may set the tone for similar deals in the region.

LLOYDS BANKING Group sold an 809 million pound ($1.2 billion) portfolio of non-performing loans on distressed property in Australia to Morgan Stanley and Blackstone, as part of the UK lender's plans to wind down non-core assets.

JUNE 5

ASIA'S SHARE of global private equity investments has doubled to 21 percent in the past four years, helped by last year's strong growth, and that figure should continue to rise, a top McKinsey & Co executive told Reuters.

A MULTIBILLION-dollar investment fund set up by Russia and China is expected to make its first investment, into a Russian forestry company, as economic ties between the neighbouring countries grow closer.

CHINESE SMARTPHONE maker Xiaomi Technology is in the process of closing a fundraising round that will value it at $4 billion - almost half of Nokia's market capitalisation - a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

SEQUOIA CAPITAL, long considered one the premier venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, generated positive investment returns even for funds raised at the peak of the dot-com bubble in 1999 and 2000, peHUB reported.

CHALLENGER INFRASTRUCTURE Fund said it has agreed to sell its 66.2 percent interest in LBC for $278 million to a consortium comprising Dutch pension fund asset managers APG Algemene Pensioen Groep N.V. and PGGM, and Australian superannuation investors.

JUNE 4

HERO MOTOCORP, India's largest two-wheeled vehicle manufacturer, has approved a proposal to merge the investment arm of its parent into the automaker, the company said, 18 months after it announced its split from Honda Motor.

WARBURG PINCUS LLC has agreed to buy a controlling stake in Future Capital Holdings for nearly $100 million, helping the U.S. private equity firm to expand its presence in India's financial services sector.

AUSTRALIA'S BRAMBLES Ltd, the world's leading pallet supplier, said it has decided not to sell its $2 billion Recall information management business because of low offers, adding to a long list of deals pulled due to choppy markets.

ORRICK, HERRINGTONG & Sutcliffe has hired two new China partners, Mathew Lewis, the former head of global capital markets legal at Morgan Stanley Asia, and Seung Chong.

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