Morgan Stanley raises $1.7b for Asia deals

Morgan Stanley’s private equity arm has raised about $1.7 billion for corporate investments mainly in China where it sees the best value in a decade.

Morgan Stanley’s fundraising comes hot on the heels of the much larger capital pools amassed by some of its competitors. KKR raised $6 billion last year for Asia's largest-ever fund, CVC Capital Partners’ closed a $3.5 billion fund, Affinity Equity Partners’ collected $3.8 billion and TPG raised $3.3 billion for its sixth Asia fund. 

Morgan Stanley’s latest Asia fund is $200 million larger than its previous fund. The US firm hopes to repeat the success it previously had in...