Investors have been feeling pretty good about Carlyle recently. In the past five quarters the private equity group has made $15bn in new investments and returned about the same amount of money to its investors. Its competitors have generally been more cautious.
But investors may not be so content with some recent deals in Asia, whether out of Carlyle’s growth fund or its big buy-out fund.
This week Carlyle announced the latter would take a minority stake in Haier Electronics, a unit of a Chinese white goods company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with the right to securities representing 9 per cent of the company and one board seat.