Partners Group is exiting its private credit investment in Gong cha, the Taiwanese bubble-tea chain, after Bain Capital agreed to acquire the brand from TA Associates this month, according to Bloomberg.

In 2019, Partners Group provided a financing package of more than $200m to support TA Associates' acquisition of Gong cha, and it also took a minority equity stake. Bain's purchase now clears the way for that debt to be repaid in full. The returns on the investment were not disclosed.

Bain Capital agreed in early August to acquire Gong cha, which operates nearly 2,200 stores across 33 markets on a capital-light franchise model, from TA Associates and the company's other shareholders. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Financial terms were not disclosed, though Nikkei reported a price of more than $635m, well below the roughly $2bn TA had earlier been seeking.

Bain, which becomes the brand's third private equity owner, prevailed in a contested process that had also drawn interest from MBK Partners and General Atlantic. The repayment frees capital just as Partners Group sharpens its focus on Asian private credit. Global head of private debt [PERSON_NAME] told Bloomberg that investors are diversifying away from traditional strategies and, as he put it, are 'looking to make dedicated allocations to Asia private credit.' The firm has deployed several billion dollars across more than 50 regional private credit investments over the past 15 years, most of them in the last five to seven, and now oversees about $6bn of private credit assets in Asia.