Weekly Asia News (Friday)

China surpassed the UK to become the second-largest recipient of venture capital equity financing in 2011. According to Dow Jones VentureSource, which tracks venture-backed companies, Chinese firms received 332 venture capital equity financing deals in 2011, surpassing the UK’s 274. The US retained its lead with 3,209 deals. »

Offshore law firm, Mourant Ozannes, has opened an office in Hong Kong to provide clients and intermediaries with access to the firm's offshore legal services in an Asian time zone. »

General Atlantic has opened a new office in Singapore. The office is led by Managing Director Abhay Havaldar, while Nick Nash, a Vice President with GA, has relocated to Singapore from New York to join the new Singapore team. »

The Jordan Company, a leading middle-market private equity firm, has completed the sale of International Mining Machinery Ltd to Joy Global Inc, a high productivity mining solutions provider. In July 2011, the Jordan Company announced that it had entered into an Share Purchase Agreement to sell 534.8 million shares of IMM, representing approximately 41% of the company’s issued share capital, to Joy Global Inc.   »

Symphony International Holdings Limited has taken a stake in a boutique luxury leather goods brand, Maison Takuya, known for its hand-crafted leather products and accessories. »

The AIM-quoted investment group China Private Equity Investments Holdings Limited has raised USD1 million (approximately GBP641,660) through the issue of 2,500,000 new shares at USD0.40 per share to Max Era Properties Limited.  »

eFront, a software provider of solutions for the alternative investment market, has opened a new office in the heart of Singapore’s financial and trade centre. »

Southern Cross Venture partners has secured the mandate to run the Australian Government’s first Renewable Energy Venture Capital Fund. »

Aureos Capital Limited has expanded its Asia team with the appointment of Ashish Patel as Partner for Asia. Aureos is a private equity fund management company specialising in investing in small and medium sized businesses in emerging markets. »

The Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCAL) has welcomed the Commonwealth Government’s announcement to fund up to AUD100 million to venture capital (VC) funds to commercialise Australian innovation and research. »