Money invested in New Zealand by private equity investors last year rose to US$136.2 million ($188.1 million), up from just US$16.3 million the year before.
Hong Kong-based Thomson Venture Economics figures show this was invested in 19 deals, involving 17 different companies.
In April last year, Australian investment firm Pacific
Equity Partners (PEP) bought Australian and New Zealand bookselling businesses including Angus & Robertson and Whitcoulls for $136 million.
In November, it also took over unlisted rest home and hospital operator Guardian Healthcare for $110 million.
Private equity investments in the Asia-Pacific region (which does not include Japan) amounted to US$3.9 billion last year, an 18 per cent increase from total registered investments the year before.
Private equity firms often invest in businesses across a wide range of sectors, trying to improve them and then exit at a profit, often via sharemarket floats. Australia accounted for the lion's share of the region's private equity investment last year, attracting US$847.2 million. This was down from the year before, when US$1.4 billion was invested there.
Some of its investment came in the form of New Zealand private equity money, with the $113 million purchase of the transtasman operations of Tyco International by Hauraki Private Equity No 2, a fund created by Goldman Sachs that last year raised $75 million from local investors.
In August, another Australian private equity firm, Gresham Partners, bought the Noel Leeming, Bond & Bond and Big Byte chains from the Pacific Retail Group for $138.5 million.
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