Longreach stretches funD to $750M

The LongReach Group has raised an inaugural fund of $750 million, said Mark Chiba, one of three co-founders of the Japanese buyout firm.

Speaking in Hong Kong last week at the inaugural Private Equity Partners Forum, Chiba was ebullient about the group’s successful over-subscribed first fund. But he said that the fund-raising process was arduous.

“We probably visited 150 investors, including 30 to 40 institutions,” he said. The efforts paid off as about one-third of the fund’s commitments came from Japanese LPs and the remaining two-thirds from U.S.-based LPs.

Chiba, a former UBS executive, said LongReach would invest mostly in Japanese buyouts.