Local investors set sights on China media industry with $131m private equity fund

It's the first of its kind in Singapore.

A Singapore-based $131m (US$100m) private equity media fund targeted at China’s media and entertainment industry was launched today by its three main partners – Yu Dong, Founder and Chairman of NASDAQ-listed Bona Film Group Singapore PE fund, Tembusu Partners, and local media entrepreneur, Calvin Cheng.

The MOU signing was witnessed by Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong during the Singapore Media Festival.

The media fund will be the first such non-Renminbi dominated fund to invest in China’s media and entertainment industry.

It will be domiciled in Singapore and will leverage on the country’s legal framework and status as a financial hub to attract investors from and outside the region.

The US$100 million closed-end five-year media fund will be formalized on 31 March 2015, with fund raising to begin shortly after.

Anchor investors are likely to include Bona Film Group as well as Thailand’s Chia Tai Group.

The fund will focus on the Chinese market, home to the fastest growing media industry in the world. It will target media companies, content and technologies.

More From Singapore Business Review

• Here’s the real deal behind Singapore’s escalating household debt
  

• Battered residential developers forced to slash prices to evade hefty fines
  

• A high-end disaster: Avoid Singapore’s residential market, investors told