Carlyle expands business in Asia through key appointments

August 20, 2007, Mumbai "� Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group today announced the appointments of Rahul Gupta, Ryoko Kondo and Agnes Kong as Vice Presidents for its Asia Leveraged Finance Group, reporting to Eric Mason, Managing Director and group head. The new hires will significantly expand the group's coverage in Japan, Greater China and Southeast Asia.

Today's announcement follows the appointment of Eric Mason in May this year and highlights the firm's continued interest in Asia. Carlyle Asia Leveraged Finance will become a significant investor in leveraged debt instruments including senior secured loans, high yield bonds and mezzanine securities across Asia Pacific. The establishment of Carlyle Asia Leveraged Finance marks the first dedicated leveraged finance team among private equity funds in Asia and complements Carlyle's established leveraged finance teams in the U.S. and Europe.

Mr. Mason said, "We aim to build the premiere independent leveraged finance team in Asia to provide an additional financing source for private equity transactions and growth capital typically served only by banks. The development of capital markets in the U.S. and Europe illustrates the importance of institutional investors in leveraged finance; these institutional investors make up a significant majority of the overall debt volumes. We believe that the growth of non-bank institutional investors in Asia will benefit the development of private equity in this region."

Mr. Mason added, "We are delighted with these key additions, each brings unique and superb skill sets and experience to the team. Rahul has extensive experience in leveraged finance structuring and high yield credit research in the region. Agnes has expertise across Greater China and joins with a diverse exposure in the business, having worked in New York, Hong Kong and Washington, DC. Finally, Ryoko is among the most accomplished leveraged finance bankers in Japan and has helped lead the financing for some of the most important private equity deals in the country."

Before joining Carlyle, Mr. Gupta was a Director with UBS's Asian fixed income research, covering regional high-yield corporate credit. Prior to that, he worked for five years at JPMorgan and most recently on its Asian Leveraged Finance team. Gupta earned his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, a Bachelor degree in Commerce (Honors) from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta.

Ms. Kondo comes to Carlyle from JPMorgan's Asia Syndicated and Leveraged Finance team, where she was responsible for originating, structuring and syndicating debt structures for private equity transactions. She graduated from Keio University in Tokyo and will be based in Carlyle's Tokyo office.

Prior to Carlyle, Ms. Kong was a Senior Associate of JPMorgan's Asia Syndicated and Leveraged Finance team focused on Greater China. Before joining JPMorgan, Ms. Kong worked for the International Finance Corporation in Washington, DC, Centre Solutions in Hong Kong, and Goldman Sachs in New York. She earned her MBA from the Harvard Business School and her BA from Yale University.

Mr. Gupta and Ms. Kong assumed their positions on August 1st and Ms. Kondo will begin her duties in October.

About The Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group is a global private equity firm with $71.4 billion under management. Carlyle invests in buyouts, venture & growth capital, real estate and leveraged finance in Asia, Europe and North America, focusing on aerospace & defense, automotive & transportation, consumer & retail, energy & power, healthcare, industrial, technology & business services and telecommunications & media. Since 1987, the firm has invested $28.3 billion of equity in 636 transactions for a total purchase price of $132.0 billion. The Carlyle Group employs more than 800 people in 19 countries. In the aggregate, Carlyle portfolio companies have more than $87 billion in revenue and employ more than 286,000 people around the world. www.carlyle.com.