Rx for China Biotech: Private Equity September 6, 2012, 7:19 PM HKT Originally posted on Deal Journal: Private-equity fund RRJ Capital, best known for its investments in U.S. natural gas sector, has invested $50 million in a Chinese biotech company, an industry Beijing is pushing hard to develop. RRJ on Friday agreed to invest $50 million in Triplex Biosciences Co., according to a person close to the deal. Triplex, a closely held company based in the city of Xiamen, makes products used to detect and diagnose hepatitis B and C and certain cancers from blood and tissue samples. Another person familiar with the deal said the fund took between an 11% and 19% stake in the company but declined to give an exact figure. A Triplex spokesman declined to comment. With China's population both aging and growing more affluent, the government is looking for cost-effective ways to manage growing health-care demands. China's leaders are cheering on the growth of biotechnology, offering special loans and creating grants to open hundreds of publicly funded laboratories, as part of an effort to shift the country's economy from low-level manufacturing to high-tech, skilled industries. Private equity investment into Chinese health care doubled to $489 million in the first half of the year compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the Centre for Asia Private Equity Research Ltd. In August, Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle Group CG +0.45% bought a 13.5% stake in Chinese health-care check-up services provider Meinian Onehealth Healthcare (Group) Co. In April Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. said it would invest $65 million in China Cord Blood Corp CO -0.37%., which provides services pertaining to umbilical cord blood, which is rich in stem cells. RRJ is best known for its energy deals, in which it has repeatedly teamed up with some of the biggest state-backed investors in Asia.RRJ and Singapore state-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. together invested $468 million in Cheniere Energy Inc LNG +3.63%. in May to process and export liquefied natural gas from the U.S. Gulf Coast. In April RRJ invested $341 million in a Hong Kong-listed crude-oil and natural-gas company Kunlun Energy Co 0135.HK -0.29%. as part of a share placement, said a person familiar with the deal.In April last year the fund, again with Temasek, led a consortium that also included Korea Investment Corp 019660.KQ +3.34%. that invested about $3.5 billion in Frac Tech Holdings. RRJ Capital contributed $400 million.Still, the fund also focuses on investing in the health care and consumer sectors as well as financial institutions. In June 2011 it invested in AAB International Group Holdings, a private Chinese diaper maker.RRJ, which raised $2.3 billion for its first fund in March last year, is currently raising $5 billion for its second Asia-focused fund. The new fund's first close is expected in September.
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