Asia Private Equity Weekly News, June 23, 2014

June 23 (Reuters) - News and developments in Asia private equity from Reuters News for the week ended June 20.

JUNE 20

BUYOUT FIRMS TPG Capital and Carlyle Group are targeting a $2.4 billion initial public offering of shares in Australia's Healthscope Ltd as their most-favoured option for the country's second-biggest private hospitals operator, a source with direct knowledge of plans told Reuters.

SHARES IN Mantra Group Ltd, Australia's second-largest hotel company, listed at a 2.8 percent premium to their issue price when they debuted on the country's stock exchange on Friday.

JUNE 19

DEALTALK -A little over a month ago, a Texas power utility at the centre of the biggest leveraged buyout in history filed for bankruptcy, sunk by billions of dollars of debt that it took on after being acquired by a trio of top private equity names in 2007.

ELEVEN LENDERS have funded an around A$830 million ($780.12 million) dual-currency post-IPO refinancing for Australian services firm Spotless Group, Basis Point reported citing sources.

SWISS-BASED hedge fund group Gottex Fund Management Holdings is targeting a $6.5 billion boost to its assets, around half of which will come from acquisitions in Asia and the United States, its chief executive said.

JUNE 18

REUTERS INSIDER - Kathy Xu's private-equity fund, Capital Today, was one of the first investors in Nasdaq-listed e-commerce giant JD.com Inc, reaping massive returns.. (http://reut.rs/UxYO8O)

WITH AN iron grip, JD.com founder Richard Liu has dragged China's number two online retailer from a Beijing backwater to a rich New York listing. Beyond the wealth that brought him lies Liu's next target - beating Jack Ma's Alibaba.

SEVEN BANKS led by UBS AG (Xetra: UB0BL6 - news) and Bank of America (TLO: BAC.TI - news) Merrill Lynch have underwritten a term loan B covenant lite financing package for private equity giant TPG's acquisition of global real estate services unit DTZ, Basis Point reported citing sources.

JUNE 17

INDIA'S RATNAKAR Bank Ltd plans to launch an initial public offering of shares worth up to $250 million in the first quarter of next year, three sources directly involved in the process said.

HONG KONG-listed investment firm Kai Yuan Holdings Ltd , which has interests from steelmaking to real estate, has agreed to buy the Paris Marriott Hotel Champs-Elysees for 344.5 million euros ($469 million).

JUNE 16

AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERING services company UGL Ltd confirmed the cash sale of its property arm to a consortium of TPG, PAG Asia Capital and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan for A$1.215 billion ($1.14 billion).

CVC CAPITAL Partners and the founder of investee company, Education International Corp Group Ltd (EIC), said that Isa Wong has joined EIC as CEO. Wong, who will be based in Beijing, joins EIC from Pearson (NYSE: PSO - news) , where she was most recently president of the Greater China (HKSE: 0431.HK - news) business. (http://bit.ly/Uy153K)

($1 = 1.0639 Australian Dollars) (Compiled by Stephen Aldred in Hong Kong; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)