MS Morgan Stanley

By Rick Carew 

HONG KONG--One of China's top deal makers is setting up a new private-equity firm, Nexus Point Partners, that is focused on buyouts, according to people familiar with the situation.

Kuo-Chuan Kung is setting up Nexus Point in Hong Kong, after leaving another firm he co-founded, MBK Partners LP--which is now one of Asia's biggest homegrown private-equity firms, with more than $10 billion invested across the region. Mr. Kung led MBK's investments in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Mr. Kung is being joined at Nexus Point by Richard J. Wong, formerly Morgan Stanley's co-head of mergers and acquisitions in Asia, and Min Li, who until recently led Bain Capital Asia's health care practice, the people said.

They are among a number of prominent China financiers who have recently launched new funds, including KKR & Co.'s former China head David Liu. He started his own investment firm. Many are leaving well-established large firms and striking out on their own, in an effort to have more flexibility over the types of deals they can pursue. They also can get a bigger share of the profits from the deals, according to industry participants.

At MBK, Mr. Kung focused on taking controlling stakes in companies that were positioned to benefit from growth in Chinese consumer demand. He led a lucrative buyout of Taiwan's largest cable-television operator, China Network Systems, and reached a deal in July 2015 to sell it to a consortium of investors led by Far EasTone Telecommunications Co. and Morgan Stanley's private equity arm for $2.3 billion. He worked closely on that deal with Morgan Stanley's Mr. Wong.

Mr. Kung also invested in Chinese waste-to-energy business GSE Investment Corp. and later sold control of that to state-owned Beijing Enterprises Holdings Ltd. at a profit in December 2014.

Nexus Point hasn't yet set a target for its first fundraising, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Write to Rick Carew at rick.carew@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 16, 2017 05:17 ET (09:17 GMT)

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