The Carlyle Group Makes Five New Growth Capital Investments in Asia

Hong Kong – Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group today announced five new investments in high-growth industries in China and Korea. These investments, totaling US$46 million, will be made through Carlyle’s Asia Venture Partners II, a US$164 million growth capital fund.

"We are pleased to have secured these attractive investments in the high-growth sectors in China and Korea, where Carlyle has a strong presence," said Wayne Tsou, Managing Director of The Carlyle Group and Head of the Carlyle Asia Venture and Growth Capital Group. "These companies are emerging leaders in their respective spaces, thus offering our investors great opportunities for superior returns."

With these investments, Carlyle’s two Asian growth capital funds - CAVP I and II – now have 23 active portfolio companies.

The new investments are:
· ZCom Company Limited; US$10 million; China
· Sunco Zhiye Group; US$15 million; China
· Target Media Limited; US$5 million follow-on investment; China
· Flexcom Company Limited; US$11 million; Korea
· TLi Inc; US$5 million; Korea

ZCom Company Limited (China)

Founded in 2004, ZCom designs and provides digital content delivery platforms based on peer-to-peer technology. It has the largest digital magazine delivery platform in China based on its accumulated distribution volume of more than 20 million magazines. Currently it has more than 1.5 million registered users.

ZCom’s goal is to become the leading digital entertainment content aggregator and distributor in the Greater China region.

Sunco Zhiye Group (China)

Sunco, established in 1995 in Tianjin, is China’s largest nationwide real estate brokerage company with 855 outlets in 21 major cities. It provides individual customers with secondary market brokerage services, including secondary property selling and purchase brokerage, leasing brokerage, renovation services and insurance and mortgage brokerage services. Sunco also engages in secondary market proprietary trading business and agency sales services for real estate developers.

With China’s robust economic development, real estate investments grew 28.1% in 2004, contributing nearly 10% to China’s GDP. Sunco anticipates stable growth in this sector in the coming years and expects to benefit from Chinese consumers’ increasing purchasing power and rising living standards.

Target Media Limited (China)

Target Media, founded in 2002 with offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, delivers advertisements through traditional and non-traditional media. It is a specialist in outdoor advertising. By placing LCD and PDP screens in strategic locations, Target Media is a leader in the in-building interactive advertising sector in China. With an extensive coverage of thousands of buildings across more than 30 cities in China, Target Media enables its advertisers to reach out to as many as 25 million highly targeted audiences on a daily basis.

China is one of the largest and fastest-growing advertising markets in the world. According to ZenithOptimedia, China’s total advertising spending was US$7.7 billion in 2003 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.3% from 2004 to 2007.

Flexcom Company Limited (Korea)
Founded in 2000, Flexcom is a Flexible Printed Circuit Board (FPCB) manufacturer in Korea. Flexcom’s proprietary manufacturing technology, called FlexCom Plating, allows the company to produce much thinner and more flexible circuit boards than traditional PCBs. This product has dramatically improved the compactness, lightness and reliability of electronic devices that are widely used in advanced applications such as mobile phone, camera, network systems, IC modules and medical equipment.

By leveraging Carlyle’s global network and operational expertise, Flexcom will expand its clientele both domestically and internationally. Flexcom’s customers include Pantech & Curitel, the number three mobile phone maker in Korea, Samsung Techwin, the leading mobile phone camera module maker in Korea, and several others who provide mobile phone modules to Samsung Electronics.

TLi Inc. (Korea)

TLi, established in 1998, is a fabless semiconductor design company focusing on the flat panel display market. It is one of the three main Timing Controller integrated chip suppliers of LG Philips LCD in the production of its world-renowned TFT-LCD TV panels.

TLi plans to diversify its product line and customer base as well as to develop new products and technologies, such as LCD Driver IC and Camera Lens Driver IC, which are both in the final phase of testing before proceeding to commercial production. TLi also has a clear product roadmap to expand into other display ICs that are compatible with its current technology platform.

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