By Carol Zhong and Kane Wu
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Global asset manager Blackstone Group LP (N:BX) has reached a deal to acquire China-based cosmetics packaging firm ShyaHsin Packaging (China) Co Ltd for about $800 million to $900 million (608.83 million pounds to 684.93 million pounds) four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The deal will be Blackstone's first private equity investment in China since 2014, Thomson Reuters data showed.
The U.S.-based investment house has signed the deal agreement but is still lining up loan financing of about $600 million to fund the transaction, said two of the people, who declined to be identified as the information was confidential.
Blackstone declined to comment. ShyaHsin could not be reached for comment.
Based in southeast China's Kunshan province, Taiwanese-owned ShyaHsin specialises in the production of cosmetics packaging containers, with clients from China, South Korea, Japan and Europe, according to its website.
The investment comes as Blackstone seeks to raise up to $3 billion for its first pan-Asia buyout fund, aiming to lock in the first tranche of investment by the end of 2017. The fund will focus on sectors such as healthcare, high-end manufacturing and services, and the so-called consumer upgrade sector - goods and services geared to consumers who want to upgrade their lifestyles.
Blackstone's last investment in China was in medical devices maker Suzhou Xinrong Best Medical Instrument Co Ltd.
In the same year, it acquired Pactera Technology International Ltd, an information technology outsourcing and consulting service provider in China which it sold to a unit of conglomerate HNA Group Co Ltd last year for about $675 million in cash.
Blackstone is among potential bidders short-listed by Link Real Estate Investment Trust (HK:0823) to buy Hong Kong retail assets valued at about $2 billion, Reuters reported in October.
It is also selling portfolio companies including Trans Maldivian Airways, a private airline headquartered in Maldives, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.