Yao Capital, the Chinese private equity firm co-founded by former NBA player Yao Ming, said that it aims to raise $250M "for its first U.S. dollar fund that will invest in overseas sports assets with relevance to the Chinese market," according to Julie Zhu of REUTERS. Yao Capital co-Founder & CEO David Han said that the firm is in talks with prospective int'l investors, "including university endowments and private wealth managers," about the fund which it plans to launch this year. Han, a former chief investment officer at China's Wanda Group, added that the company had decided on a U.S. dollar fund "after tighter Beijing's capital controls made it tougher to do overseas deals." Han said, "Many of our targets are abroad. When the government tightened late last year, things did become difficult for us." Yao Capital, formed early last year, is "among China's first private investors in the sports sector." Han said that it will "focus on sports-related products such as sports medicine, gaming and sporting rights," adding that investments would be made in Europe and the U.S. as well as in China. He said that he expected the country's sports market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 20% "over the next decade" (REUTERS, 5/29).
