KOTRA, Chinese fund form partnership

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese private fund management firm to invest in small and medium-sized firms with high potential, the trade agency said Thursday.

KOTRA and KCA Capital Partners, which is partially owned by China’s leading investment group China International Capital, will cooperate to find companies in the fields of games and entertainment as well as consumer goods and help their entry into Chinese and Association of Southeast Asian Nations markets. 

KCA plans to form the Korea-China-ASEAN Advantage Fund to be worth about $250 million and supported by domestic and overseas organizations such as the CICC and Korea Growth Investment Corp. It will allocate $150 million for Korean companies.

“Korea’s small and medium companies have huge potential to become global players,” Alex Zhao, the head of KCA, said. “So they need to strategically use capital from outside and actively seek opportunities to enter the Chinese and Southeast Asian markets.”

KOTRA and KCA Capital will hold an investment information session in early 2017, it said. 

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)