Mary Ma, one of China's top businesswomen, is leaving California-based TPG Capital to start a private equity fund, a report said Thursday, the latest Chinese executive to strike out on their own.
Ma, the former chief financial officer at Chinese computer giant Lenovo who reportedly helped engineer the 2005 takeover of IBM's personal computer business, joined TPG in 2007 and became one of just a few high-profile women in Asia's buy-out business.
The executive plans to start her China-focused fund with Louis Cheung, who is to step down as president of China's Ping An Group in March, the Financial Times reported.
Ma has previously been listed by Fortune magazine as one of the most powerful women in business, a rarity in China where most top-level executive positions are held by men.
Other Chinese dealmakers, including former TPG Capital partner Shan Weijian and Goldman Sachs banker Fred Hu, have also struck out on their own, it said.
"This shows the muscle of the mainlanders. They don't think they need anything or anyone else," an unnamed executive at a private equity firm told the FT.
Hu raised about $800 million from investors, while Shan is looking to raise about $2 billion for his new fund, the paper said, citing unnamed sources.
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