New Delhi based - Religare Enterprises Ltd, which has a PE JV with Milestone, is now planning to go solo with a $500 mn pan Asia fund targeted at emerging economies.

The fund will mainly look for opportunities in Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore and India.

The promoters are likely to provide $100 mn as anchor investment in the fund, while the rest will be raised through Indian and international investors. The fund would be a sector neutral, with major focus on healthcare, diagnostic labs, hospital chains, financial services and consumer sectors.

In April, Religare had entered into a joint venture with Milestone to launch a Rs 600-crore India Build Out Fund I. Despite being announced seven months back, it is still in the process of raising funds. Religare had contributed Rs 60 crore as anchor investor in the fund, mainly targeting healthcare and education sectors. Fund managers were expecting an IRR of around 30%.

The pan-Asian fund comes at a time when fund raising by global PE players has hit a five-year low by raising $38 bn during July-September 2009. Fund raising in the third quarter went down by 55 per cent compared with the second quarter when $84 bn was raised globally, according to data from Preqin, a fund tracking firm. The average time taken by funds to achieve closure was estimated at 18 months, which was nearly double the time taken in 2004.

There are 117 pan-Asia private equity funds currently planning to raise around $59.2 bn. There are 78 India-focussed funds looking to raise $24 bin. A recent KPMG survey said that India could lead global PE recovery as 33% of investors ranked the country as the most attractive market after China.

ICICI Ventures is also raising a $500 mn  fund, followed by Renuka Ramnath-promoted Multiples Asset, which was also planning to raise a $500 mn fund. Axis PE was also in the process of raising a $250 mn  fund for infrastructure. Some of the recent fund raising include a $750 mn infrastructure fund for emerging markets by global private equity firm Actis.