SEAVI Advent Private Equity is the first

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

and

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

. Since its founding in 1984 by Peter Brooke, the firm has invested over US$800 million into more than 120 companies in

and

Greater China In ethnogeography, "Greater China" is a loosely-defined term that refers to the region sharing cultural and economic ties with the Chinese people, often used by international enterprises or organisations in unofficial usage. The notion contains ...

. SEAVI Advent operates from three offices in Asia and is the independent Asian affiliate of

Advent International Advent International Corporation is an American global private equity firm. It is focused on buyouts of companies in Western and Central Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. The firm focuses on international buyouts, growth and strat ...

, with an established long-term strategic partnership with Advent International in Southeast Asia and the Greater China region. Since 1996, SEAVI Advent has a strong presence and substantial investments in Southeast Asia and Greater China. Previous investments include Venture Manufacturing Singapore (now called Venture Corporation Ltd), Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, the buyout of Inchcape Marketing Services Limited, Sinofriends (also known as ZhenAi Wang) and Weimob.

History

SEAVI Advent began operations in December 1983 under the then name of Southeast Asia Venture Investment Company or SEAVIC for short, with a mandate to invest in venture capital deals in the Southeast Asia region. It was founder by Peter Brooke, who had also founded

TA Associates TA Associates Management, L.P. is an American private equity firm and was one of the early modern-era private equity firms in the United States. The firm leads buyouts and minority recapitalizations of profitable growth companies. TA invests acros ...

and Advent International, and was managed by Tan Keng Boon, Derrick Lee and Koh Lee Boon. SEAVIC was launched with the international sponsorship of TA Associates, Orange Nassau and the

International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C. and a member of the World Bank Group that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private ...

together with the regional sponsorship of National Iron and Steel Mills of

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

DBS Bank DBS Bank Limited is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at the Marina Bay Financial Centre in the Marina Bay district of Singapore. The bank was previously known as The Development Bank of Si ...

, and the Arab-Malaysian Bank of

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, amongst others. SEAVIC initially managed three separate funds in 1983 - Venture Investment Singapore fund focusing on Singapore, SEAVI fund focusing on Singapore and other

ASEAN The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its member states r ...

countries, and Malaysian Ventures Sdn. Bhd. focusing on Malaysia. It later expanded to managing other country specific funds such as SEAVI Thailand and SEAVI Indonesia. In 1996, SEAVIC was fully acquired by Advent International and shifted its focus to larger, later-stage deals where it could take a controlling interest in companies that were benefiting from the rapid economic growth in Southeast Asia. In 2002, SEAVIC was spun back out to affiliate status under the name SEAVI Advent and was managed by Tan Keng Boon and Derrick Lee, its two founding managing partners. According to Preqin, SEAVI Advent Equity IV, SEAVI Advent's fourth fund is ranked fourth in the top-performing ASEAN-based private equity funds of all vintages, with a net IRR of 29.9%. Since then, SEAVI Advent is managing its seventh fund, focusing on growth stage investments and pre-IPO and middle market buyouts in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, Singapore, Malaysia,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and other Southeast Asian markets. SEAVI Advent is headquartered in Singapore with offices in Hong Kong and

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Investments

As of 2025, SEAVI Advent has taken more than 50 portfolio companies public on seven Asian stock exchanges, including

, Indonesia, Thailand and Mainland China, as well as both the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

and

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

. Previous investments include venture capital investments, significant minority equity investments, minority or majority recapitalizations,

mezzanine financing Mezzanine capital is a type of financing that sits between senior debt and equity in a company's capital structure. It is typically used to fund growth, acquisitions, or buyouts. Technically, mezzanine capital can be either a debt or equity ins ...

leveraged buyouts A leveraged buyout (LBO) is the acquisition of a company using a significant proportion of borrowed money ( leverage) to fund the acquisition with the remainder of the purchase price funded with private equity. The assets of the acquired company ...

and

management buyouts A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 1980 ...

. SEAVI Advent invests in a large range of sectors, including but not limited to enterprise technology & services, advanced manufacturing, technology, healthcare, consumer and logistics. SEAVIC's first investment was that of Venture Manufacturing Singapore (VMS) which if first founded in 1984 and invested US$1.7 million. As part of VMS' restructuring, SEAVIC brought in a new management team before subsequently listing the company on Singapore's

SESDAQ Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX Group) is a Singapore-based exchange conglomerate, operating equity, fixed income, currency and commodity markets. It provides a range of listing, trading, clearing, settlement, depository and data services. S ...

in 1992. Together with Advent International, SEAVI Advent was one of the investors that teamed-up with Li & Fung Ltd, one of Asia’s most successful trading and logistics companies, as part of a leveraged buyout of

Inchcape Plc Inchcape plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational automotive distribution, retail and services company headquartered in London, England. An outgrowth of Calcutta-based Mackinnon Mackenzie Company, Inchcape has operations in 3 ...

's Asia Pacific marketing, distributing and warehouse businesses for US$220 million. It helped list the company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2004. In 2006, SEAVI Advent led the restructuring of Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, one of China's largest privately owned shipbuilders, and successfully listed the company on the Singapore Exchange. This project was one of the largest IPOs by a foreign company in Singapore then. In 2018, SEAVI Advent invested US$25 million in Chinese software developer and social advertising service provider Weimob, and listed the company on the

Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (, SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the List of major stock exchanges, 9th largest globally by market ...

. SEAVI Advent focuses on investing in later-stage growth companies in more high-tech and service-related businesses.

References

External links

Official website
{{private equity firms Financial services companies of China Private equity firms of Asia-Pacific