TPG, a leading global alternative asset firm, announced on Thursday that it has raised $3.4 billion to reach the first close of its new Asia fund.

The first close of a private equity fundraising process is seen as a key milestone that usually highlights that the fund has reached a threshold and can start investing.

The amount raised "takes us more than halfway towards our $6 billion target," TPG CFO Jack Weingart said at an earnings call.

If the target is met, the new fund – TPG Capital Asia VIII – will become the firm's largest Asia fund since it entered the region in 1994, despite the weak global market sentiment and uncertainties. The firm has invested about $14 billion in Asia since 1994.

TPG has a balanced distribution in five Asia-Pacific markets of Australia, China, India, South Korea and Southeast Asia – with healthcare and consumer accounting for about 70 percent of its investments.

Late last month, TPG announced it has invested through this new fund in a majority stake of iNova Pharmaceuticals, an independent consumer healthcare and medicine products company.

The firm's existing Asian portfolio of healthcare and consumer companies include Novotech, One Health Asia, Pathology Asia, Greencross, CrownX, Sai Life, Kangji and Dingdang Health.

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn