L Catterton closes over $1.4b fund for healthcare, retail firms in Asia

L Catterton, a US$15 billion private equity firm based in the US, has closed its third Asia fund at a little over US$1.4 billion, which is aimed at backing retail and healthcare companies across the region.

Photo credit: Roderick Eime

For this fund, L Catterton – which was co-founded by luxury goods maker LVMH – had a target of over US$1.2 billion. But the company kept it open after additional investors expressed interest, Bloomberg reported, citing the firm’s managing partner Chinta Bhagat.

According to the company, L Catterton Asia 3 is set to run for 10 years and is focused on deals across China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, with an average ticket size somewhere between US$50 million to US$150 million. Bhagat added that the size of the latest fund means that it will focus on transactions above US$100 million.

L Catterton plans to help retail brands grow with the fund, leveraging its employees’ experience in choosing store locations and finding partners. An example of an entity that the third fund could invest in is a chain of dental clinics that also offers cosmetic services, Bhagat added.

“The simplest way to think of the strategy is [investing in] anything you can build a consumer brand around,” he said.

Bhagat joined the company in August this year. He previously worked for Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, which has roughly US$37 billion in assets under management, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. With L Catterton, Bhagat handles the firm’s Asia investments with co-managing partner Ravi Thakran.

L Catterton’s first Asia fund is also on track to deliver a return of around 2 to 2.5 times, Bhagat claimed.