Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Investment Partners, a Mongolia investment operating company, recently completed a convertible note raising approximately USD4m.

The round was led by a Singapore-based hedge fund and also included a number of other private and institutional investors.

Founded in 2001, Asia Pacific Investment Partners holds positions in Mongolia's real estate development, cement, and mining industries.

It also has interests in transportation, luxury development, and infrastructure development, and owns Altan San Securities, one of the country's major stock broking firms with a seat on the small but rapidly developing Mongolian Stock Exchange.

"The majority of the financing raised in the recent round will be allocated towards rapid capacity expansion of Central Asian Cement and will be used to develop CAC's own clinker production facility as part of the company's vertical integration strategy. Additional funds will be used towards further exploration of the company's recent discovery of a large body of iron ore in a region bordering close to China," says Lee Cashell, managing partner of Asia Pacific Investment Partners.

"The boom in foreign direct investment experienced by Mongolia over the past few years is slated to grow exponentially as the development of Oyu Tolgoi, one of the largest copper mines in the world, gets underway.”

Oyu Tolgoi, which is targeted to begin production in 2013, is expected to create a multiplier effect across many different sectors of the Mongolian economy, increasing demand for housing, real estate services, construction, and cement, some of Asia Pacific Investment Partners' core businesses.

The company is planning an additional capital raising exercise of USD30m later this year as a precursor to seeking listing on a suitable exchange.