Siddharth Poddar

The Palo Alto venture firm has made its sixth investment in India by teaming with Reliance to back e-transaction company Suvidhaa.

Xiao Wei joins Anoop Seth as co-head of AMP's Asian infrastructure team, which is currently raising a $750m 'Asian Giants' infrastructure fund that agreed its first deal last month.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has hired Makram Azar, former global head of sovereign wealth funds at Lehman Brothers. Azar will lead its push into the Middle East and North Africa, setting up KKR's first office in the region.

ICICI Venture is to suffer another high profile departure. Deshpande is set to leave the firm, reportedly to take a position with NEA, just months after Aluri Rao left to lead Morgan Stanley Private Equity’s India operations.

SHUAA Capital has raised $240m for the first close of its hospitality fund focused on Saudi Arabia, ‘the first private equity fund domiciled in the Kingdom'. The fund will develop 17 hotels, apartments and resorts in the country.

ICICI Bank, parent company of ICICI Venture, plans to set up its debut fund, stepping onto its private equity arm's terrain for the first time.

Global Investment House has raised $500 million for its London Stock Exchange-listed fund focussed on financial sector assets in Middle East and North Africa.

Private equity investments showed an increase in the first five months of 2008 even as the value of all other M&A deals fell significantly.

The global private equity firm will delist the Singapore disk-drive parts manufacturer, having reportedly edged out other private equity firms such as The Carlyle Group and Bain Capital.

CITIC Capital Partners is backing Fushun Excavator, formerly a state-owned enterprise, with its second investment in two months from its China-focussed fund.