Asia Private Equity Weekly News, May 12, 2014

May 12 (Reuters) - News and developments in Asia private equity from Reuters News for the week ending May 9.

MAY 9

BREAKINGVIEWS - ALIBABA Group Holding's (IPO-ALIB.N) secret weapon is its payment division. Yet Alipay isn't part of the Chinese e-commerce company's upcoming initial public offering. The company is "conceptually" thinking about reuniting them, according to people familiar with the situation. But the status quo, however strange, looks better.

MAY 8

CVC CAPITAL Partners has agreed to buy South Korea's KFC franchise from a subsidiary of Doosan Co Ltd 000150.KS for 100 billion won ($98 million), Doosan said.

PART-WAY through Alibaba's long-awaited IPO prospectus was a subtle, but striking, warning: investors should know that lead founder and executive chairman Jack Ma might work against the company's best interests.

CARLYLE GROUP L.P. said it has opened an office in Jakarta, Indonesia. Rajiv Louis, Managing Director of the Carlyle Asia buyout team, is leading its investment advisory activities in Indonesia. [http://link.reuters.com/jab39v]

MAY 7

PARTNERS GROUP, a private markets investment manager, said on Wednesday it had opened its first Indian office in Mumbai to build its direct private equity investments in the country. Cyrus Driver will head the Mumbai office. [http://link.reuters.com/hab39v ]

CHINA MEDIA (Other OTC: CHMD - news) focused private equity firm CMC Capital Partners said it had reached the final close of a $350 million fund, its first dollar-denominated fund.

PRIVATE EQUITY real estate firm Gaw Capital Partners said it had invested in the office, officetel and retail portions of a twin tower building in Seoul, a deal which local media reported to be around 230 billion Korean won ($224.51 million). [http://link.reuters.com/kab39v ]

PRIVATE EQUITY fund of funds Emerald Hill Capital Partners, which focuses on Asia's emerging markets, said it had closed its third fund, raising over $400 million. The firm said it now has over $1 billion in assets under management.

ALIBABA has struck one of its largest deals with a U.S. online retailer, agreeing to help Amazon.com (NasdaqGS: AMZN - news) rival Shoprunner sell to China and handle delivery within the country.

MAY 6

ALIBABA GAVE investors a closer look at the scale and growth of the Chinese e-commerce juggernaut in its initial public offering prospectus, the first step in what could be the largest technology debut in history.

($1 = 1024.4500 Korean Won) (Compiled by Stephen Aldred in Hong Kong; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)