HONG KONG (SAR), 15 April 2020 – Hong Kong-headquartered Baring Private Equity Asia (“BPEA”) announced the creation of a US$5 million COVID-19 Relief Fund to support impacted local communities across the region.

BPEA Founding Partner and CEO, Jean Eric Salata, and the firm’s four other investment committee members will forego and contribute 100% of their annual salaries.  The firm itself will also contribute to the fund together with donations from other employees.

Jean Eric Salata, CEO of BPEA said: “For more than 23 years, BPEA has invested in the region and supported our portfolio companies with their growth across Asia and globally.  During these very challenging times, we want to show solidarity with our CEOs, portfolio company employees, and our communities in doing our part to help.”

BPEA has long supported many organizations throughout the region with a particular focus on disadvantaged youth, education, arts and the environment.  In Hong Kong where a substantial proportion of the fund is expected to be allocated, the firm has in the past donated to charities including Food Angel, Project Space, Teach for Hong Kong and OneSky.  In the current environment, the firm will focus its donations on local organizations that are directly helping to alleviate the hardship being created by the unemployment and economic disruption from COVID-19.

Several of the firm’s portfolio companies have also stepped up to support local relief efforts, including some select examples below:

• • JD Health, a leading e-commerce platform for consumer health and pharma products in China, took several steps to ensure the continuity of medical supplies to Wuhan including: coordinating with vendors to increase production and expedite distribution, ensuring price stability on its platform, donating over 1 million surgical masks and other medical units, and waiving fees on drug orders in the Hubei province. It has also offered free 24-hour online consultations on its platform for COVID-19 symptoms and mental health issues.

• • Vietnam USA Society English Centres, Vietnam’s largest provider of English Language Training services, has offered 1,500 comprehensive scholarships to medical, volunteer, and grocery workers and their family members. The company has also donated 20,000 medical masks to local hospitals and is offering free online TESOL workshops to public school English teachers during this period.

• • Clarivate Analytics, a leading information services and analytics provider, launched a global resource site dedicated to helping medical researchers and healthcare professionals access the world’s leading research and latest-breaking news on COVID-19.

• • Interplex, a leading precision engineering company, is helping to address the global mask shortage by shifting resources at its Hangzhou factory to produce facial masks.

• • Acuon Capital, a South Korea-based consumer finance and leasing company, donated 10,000 facial masks to the Seoul Association of Institutes for the Homeless. Employees and management also donated sanitary and food supplies to 100 low-income families in Seoul.

• • Forest Logistics, a logistics operating platform in China, donated 5,000 N95 masks to the Hubei and Tianjin governments for distribution to local healthcare systems.
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  • CMS, India’s largest cash management services company, is in discussions with partner banks to implement “Cash2Home”, a free cash delivery at home service to help senior citizens and those unable to leave their homes.

About BPEA

Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA) is one of the largest and most established private alternative investment firms in Asia, with total committed capital of over US$20 billion. The firm manages a private equity investment program, sponsoring buyouts and providing growth capital to companies for expansion or acquisitions with a particular focus on the Asia Pacific region, as well as investing in companies globally that can benefit from further expansion into the Asia Pacific region. BPEA also manages dedicated funds focused on private real estate and private credit. The firm has a 23-year history and over 180 employees located across offices in Hong Kong, China, India, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and the US. BPEA currently has over 40 portfolio companies active in Asia with a total of 224,000 employees and sales of approximately US$39 billion.

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