(Yicai) Sept. 8 -- US private equity firm Warburg Pincus said it has set up its first Chinese yuan-denominated investment fund with an expected total size of CNY300 million (USD40.8 million) and a focus on the 'big health' sector.

The fund is registered in the Chinese city of Yixing, whose local government has agreed to invested in it, and aims to increase the use of advanced global medical technologies in China, the New York-based firm announced on WeChat yesterday.

The yuan-based fund is a milestone in Warburg Pincus' nearly 30-year development in the Chinese market, Frank Wei, its China head, said at the founding ceremony yesterday. It will help Yixing to hasten the creation of a healthcare industry cluster, advance scientific and technological innovations, and cultivate leading enterprises, he noted. 

Since entering China in 1994, Warburg Pincus has been committed to nurturing new economy companies, investing USD16 billion across almost 160 firms, with over CNY16 billion (USD2.2 billion) going to the healthcare sector.

Foreign investors in China are switching to yuan funds from US dollar vehicles amid heightened global uncertainty. London-based Coller Capital announced in April that it had completed the initial fundraiser for the first phase of its yuan fund, targeting a size of CNY1.5 billion (USD204.2 million). 

Yuan funds in the Chinese private equity market raised the equivalent of USD58.4 billion last year, logging three straight quarters of growth, according to data from China Renaissance. Fundraising in US dollars almost stagnated to just USD1.1 billion.

Editor: Martin Kadiev