axa

"AXA SA's private equity unit is allocating $550 million for its first Asia-specific investment fund, seeking to capitalize on the region's economic growth.
Paris-based AXA Private Equity, the buyout unit of Europe's second-largest insurer, plans to invest another $1.5 billion to $2 billion in Asia over the next three to five years, Chief Executive Officer Dominique Senequier said. The firm wants to invest directly as well as with local partners and European entrepreneurs, the company said.
``It's necessary to be in Asia,'' Senequier said in an interview today with Bloomberg News. ``It's a very fast growing market in private equity and for economic reasons, it's obvious that we must be there.'' "