The South and Southeast Asia specialist collected $700m for Fund V in December 2022.

Creador, a Malaysia-headquartered growth equity firm, will launch its sixth flagship early next year, Private Equity International understands.

Fund VI is expected to seek $750 million to $800 million, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. If successful, that would make the vehicle slightly larger than its 2021-vintage predecessor - Creador V - which closed above target on $700 million in December 2022.

Like its predecessor, Fund VI will focus on South Asia and Southeast Asia growth opportunities. It will mainly invest in the consumer, retail, financial services, healthcare and business services sectors.

Creador declined to comment.

According to PEI data, Asian Development Bank committed $60 million to Creador V. The firm’s LPs are also understood to include a US university endowment, a global insurer and a Japanese pension, among others.

Fund V is currently being deployed, with recent deals including a 40 percent stake in Malaysia’s Pet World International in June, Reuters reported.

MVision Private Equity Advisers, which has recently entered insolvency proceedings, advised the fundraising for Creador’s fourth and fifth flagship funds, PEI data shows. Creador, which has offices in Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Spain and Mauritius, has amassed at least $2.16 billion of assets under management to date.

Geopolitical and regulatory uncertainties around China’s private equity market have prompted some LPs to explore opportunities in other parts of Asia, including Southeast Asia. Some China GPs are also expanding their focus beyond their home country, including rebranding as a pan-Asian manager, and Southeast Asia has become a popular destination.

Whether Southeast Asia can absorb all capital and appetite from global LPs is yet to be determined, with the region’s private equity markets lacking the same breadth and depth as China. At a legal conference in Hong Kong last month, fund lawyers noted that policy changes and political shifts should also be looked into closely when assessing Southeast Asian opportunities as the region holds more than ten countries, each with different legal systems.

Southeast Asia’s private equity deal value plummeted 52 percent last year and exit value dropped 46 percent, according to Bain & Co’s Asia Pacific Private Equity Report 2023. One factor behind this decline could be the dramatic drop in the value of tech companies on public stock markets, creating valuation mismatches and complicating or hindering the completion of mid- to late-stage tech deals, the report noted.

The region accounted for the smallest share of private equity deal value in Asia-Pacific last year, behind China, India, Australia-New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.