Abax Global Capital plans to launch a Real-Estate Fund

Abax Global Capital, a manager of $900 million of hedge and private equity funds, plans to start a fund for investments in Chinese real-estate projects in partnership with former Beijing-based Merrill Lynch & Co. real-estate fund investment professionals led by Greg Peng, Yang said. It will raise yuan capital from Chinese investors and will target returns of 25 percent to 35 percent from the investments, Yang said.

Chinese investors have committed about 1 billion yuan ($159million) to the fund, which is going through business registration and may hold its first close by the second quarter, Yang said.

Most of the assets in the Abax global capital special situations fund are in privately negotiated debt and equity securities, including
fixed-income, structured loans and private equity types of investments, Yang said.