Weekly Asia News (Friday)

China, Japan and India are paying more for quality European assets, bucking a trend of declining company valuations throughout the rest of the world, according to a report on global M&A trends. »

Major sovereign governments and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in the Middle East are increasingly considering new private equity models for investment, according to the fourth annual Invesco Middle East Asset Management Study. »

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) has appointed John McCarthy as global head of infrastructure, effective immediately. »

Private equity firm Advent International has appointed Michael Ming-Yue Zhu, country general manager of Solvay China, to its operating partner programme. »

Armstrong Asset Management has received the fourth commitment of a USD20m investment for its Armstrong South East Asia Clean Energy Fund from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank, to add to its first close of USD65m.  »

Telecommunication provider Bharti Airtel has entered into a binding agreement with Qatar Foundation Endowment (QFE) under which Bharti will issue 199,870,006 of its new shares to QFE representing a shareholding of five per cent in the company. »

As part of its efforts to strengthen its relationship with the Chinese fund industry, the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) has added a section in Chinese (Mandarin) to its website. »

JTC Group and Kensington Trust Group (KTG) have formed a strategic alliance that was agreed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in March. »

Symphony International Holdings’ net asset value has increased by 13.4 per cent from USD609.8m at 31 December 2012 to USD691.7m at 31 March 2013. »

The Abraaj Group has exited its investment in Thailand-based Unitrio Technology. »