Hillhouse Capital is seeking investors inside China to back a new renminbi fund, as the leading private equity group adjusts to a decline in dollar funding caused by increasing geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The Chinese investment group’s fund is likely to focus on backing companies in the healthcare sectors, according to two people close to the process. The fundraising is still in its early stages, with a target of more than Rmb10bn ($1.4bn) and the final figure dependent on market conditions, they said.
The move highlights a pivot in strategy by Hillhouse, which was started in 2005 with a $20mn investment from the endowment at Yale University, where its founder Zhang Lei had studied.