Private equity firm Warburg Pincus on Monday named India head, Vishal Mahadevia, as head of Asia private equity, a newly created position, while veteran China head Frank Wei will step down amid an Asia-wide reshuffle at the U.S. investment firm.
Mahadevia, a 17-year veteran of the firm, will remain as co-head of financial services, Warburg Pincus said in a statement.
Mahadevia’s “leadership skills and investment expertise, paired with our long-tenured next generation of investors, are an ideal team to drive the firm’s Asia strategy forward,” Warburg CEO Chip Kaye said in the statement.
In China, Wei who has worked at Warburg Pincus for over two decades would step down from his current role but would remain as a managing director at the firm through 2024 to ensure a “seamless transition”, said the statement.
Managing directors Min Fang and Ben Zhou, who joined the firm in 2007 and 2005, respectively, would become co-heads of China private equity to lead the firm’s investments in the world’s second-largest economy, where it has a nearly 30-year presence.
The moves come as Warburg Pincus is moving close to raising its maiden yuan-denominated fund, which has an estimated size of 3 billion yuan ($420.5 million) and will focus on investing in the healthcare sector, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Warburg Pincus declined to comment.
Shanghai-based Managing Director Jericho Zhang, who focused on consumer sector, and another four China dealmakers had recently left the firm, two other people with knowledge of the matter said.
A Warburg Pincus spokesperson said the firm was “making some modest changes to the structure and size of our team, to better support the opportunities in the region.”
“China remains a significant part of Warburg Pincus’ Asia strategy and the firm will continue deploying capital and partnering with management teams in the market.”
