CITIC Private Equity was founded in June 2008 during the
2008 financial crisis as the private equity investment arm of CITIC Securities. It quickly a high profile in the private equity industry after hiring Liu Lefei as chairman. Wu Yibing, the then-president of CITIC Private Equity stated that two-thirds of the fund will be allocated to companies in the state sector, where the fund enjoys good access partially because of its links to
CITIC Group. In addition the fund would only seek
minority interests in companies as founders were reluctant to step aside. The fund would play on the aspirations of local companies to emulate Chinese corporate success stories such as
Lenovo and
Haier. Notable investments of the fund included
Wind Information. In 2018, CITIC securities spun off CITIC Private Equity as an independent firm when it raised a $2.3 billion fund. It was subsequently renamed to CPE. Investors of its later funds included
GIC and
Temasek. Companies the funds invested in included
DiDi and
JD Health. In September 2023, CPE was mentioned in an
opinion piece by
Marc Thiessen in
The Washington Post that concerned
Vivek Ramaswamy. During his
2024 presidential campaign, Ramaswamy portrayed himself as tough on China, promising to bar American companies from doing business there. However it was revealed that in 2017, Ramaswamy partnered with CPE to form a company called Sinovant. In 2019, Ramaswamy partnered with CPE again to launch Cytovant Sciences. In 2023, a
Roivant Sciences spokesperson told
The New Republic that both companies never generated sales or profits and were no longer operating. Since Ramaswamy's most recent deal with CPE was just over four years ago, his sudden conversion from China deal maker to China
hawk was deeply suspect.'''' == See also ==