Trustar Capital

Trustar Capital was originally founded as CITIC Capital Partners, the private equity division of CITIC Capital. In 2017, Managing Director Anthony Hsiao and his partners completed a management buyout, acquiring majority control and rebranding as Trustar Capital. The firm now operates fully independently from CITIC Capital and its state-owned parent, CITIC Group, though the institutional infrastructure and LP relationships built under CITIC were largely preserved.

Anthony Hsiao co-founded CITIC Capital Partners in 2005 after serving as a senior executive at CITIC Capital Markets and earlier roles in investment banking. He has led Trustar Capital through its separation from CITIC and guided the firm through five completed flagship funds. His investment career spans more than two decades focused on Chinese control buyouts and growth-stage private equity.

Publicly disclosed limited partners include California Public Employees' Retirement System, Kuwait Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Singapore's GIC. These relationships date to the firm's earliest funds and represent a level of sovereign and public pension backing uncommon among independent Chinese mid-market managers.

The firm structures transactions where founding teams and management retain meaningful equity alignment, typically 20 to 40 percent, while Trustar Capital takes majority or significant-minority board representation. This model is designed to address founder succession and professionalization challenges frequently encountered in Chinese family-owned businesses. The firm supplements portfolio company management with operational partners and cross-border strategic introductions.

Trustar Capital primarily raises institutional closed-end private equity funds with approximately 10-year lives, targeting control and structured minority positions in Chinese mid-market companies. The firm also operates a growth-stage venture strategy targeting earlier-stage enterprise technology and healthcare investments. There is no perpetual capital vehicle or open-ended fund currently disclosed.

Deal origination relies on longstanding relationships with Chinese provincial governments, state-owned enterprise restructuring teams, and a network of regional operating partners built over two decades. The firm's CITIC-era lineage provides reputational capital that facilitates access to deal flow in sectors where foreign private equity firms face regulatory hurdles. All investments are screened through compliance frameworks aligned with the LP requirements of major sovereign and public pension investors.

Yes, the firm has offered co-investment rights to its limited partners and has on occasion partnered with sector-specialist managers for specific deals where additional domain expertise is beneficial. Co-investment terms align with the flagship fund economics, and the firm typically maintains lead or co-lead governance roles in any structured partnership.