New Delhi, Jan. 23 -- Swedish buyout firm EQT, which acquired Baring Private Equity Asia in 2022, has secured capital commitments of $14 billion from its limited partners for its latest Asia-focussed PE fund.

The new vehicle, BPEA Private Equity Fund IX, is also likely to secure commitments corresponding to the $14.5-billion hard cap in the first quarter of 2026, EQT said in its year-end 2025 report. The 'hard cap' refers to the upper limit of the amount of investor commitments accepted.

EQT had rolled out the fund in 2024 with a target of $12.5 billion and activated it on March 1, 2025. It had received commitments for $12 billion by October last year with closed and pending commitments exceeding its target size, EQT said at the time.

The new Asia fund is bigger than the BPEA VIII vehicle that collected $11.2 billion and more than double the size of the seventh fund that secured $6.5 billion six years ago.

EQT had acquired BPEA in March 2022 for 6.8 billion euros (close to $7.5 billion). At the time, BPEA had 17.7 billion euros in assets under management. The acquisition enhanced EQT's Asia presence, providing it access to structural growth opportunities in Asian private markets. It later renamed BPEA as EQT Private Capital Asia.

EQT said that it has so far invested 5-10% of BPEA IX. The new fund has made at least two investments so far. In November last year, EQT said it would invest about $930 million into Douzone Bizon, a provider of enterprise resource planning and business software solutions in South Korea. In July, the fund made a $2.7 billion tender offer to privatize Japanese elevator and escalator maker Fujitec Co.

The PE firm has stepped up its activities in India over the past two-three years and struck several large deals.

It acquired a controlling stake in GeBBS Healthcare Solutions from Indian PE firm ChrysCapital in September 2024. In 2023, the PE firm bought a majority stake in digital engineering company Indium Software, acquired Indira IVF and teamed up with ChrysCapital to purchase education finance company Credila from HDFC. The PE firm has invested more than its target of $5 billion in India over the past few years, its head of Asian business said in December 2024.

EQT has also harvested big sums from a few India bets. It signed off with $2.2 billion from IT services firm Coforge and wrapped up its over $500 million exit from CMS Info Systems in 2023. In December 2024, EQT and Singapore state investment firm Temasek sold their Indian green energy platform O2 Power to JSW Neo Energy Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of JSW Energy Ltd, for an enterprise value of $1.47 billion (Rs 12,468 crore).

Last year, EQT scored high returns from IT firm Sagility. The PE firm is also gearing up to take two portfolio companies public-education lender Credila and fertility chain Indira IVF.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.