March 10 (Reuters) - News and developments in Asia private equity from Reuters News for the week ended March 7.

MARCH 7

AUSTRALIA'S CHAMP Private Equity said it plans to bypass the local share market to list Shelf Drilling Ltd, the company it formed 16 months ago to run $1 billion worth of shallow water oil rigs, on the London Stock Exchange in May.

MARCH 6

SPAIN'S SAVERA Group, which earns most of its revenue in China, is seeking a buyer for around 70 percent of itself, in a sale valuing the company at up to $500 million, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

SOUTH KOREA plans to ease rules to make mergers and acquisitions easier for private equity firms and local companies in a bid to facilitate the sale of an estimated 10 trillion won ($9.34 billion) in assets of cash-strapped local conglomerates.

WARBURG PINCUS backed Sunshine 100 China Holdings Ltd, a commercial and residential real estate developer in second and third-tier Chinese cities, raised about $258 million after pricing its Hong Kong initial public offering at the bottom of expectations, IFR reported.

PREQIN RESEARCH shows an increasingly difficult environment for fund of funds vehicles, with only 72 of the funds closed in 2013 raising a total of $12 billion, compared with 87 funds raising $16 billion in 2012, and 164 funds raising $58 billion at the peak in 2007. ()

MARCH 5

KKR & Co said it had hired Tony Schulz, formerly with EIG, to join its Sydney team as managing director, as it expands its energy and infrastructure business (E&I) in Asia. Ash Upadhyaya, a director on the firm's E&I team in the United Sates, is relocating to Singapore from New York. ()

THE VOLUME of M&A activity in South Korea has posted its strongest start to the year since 2008, rising 18 percent to date and dominated by a spate of private equity dealmaking.

ICICI VENTURE, the private equity arm of No.2 Indian lender ICICI Bank and U.S. private equity giant Apollo Global Management LLC, will this month complete raising a $750 million fund to invest in distressed assets in India, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

SHAREHOLDERS REJECTED Yongye International Inc's going private proposal, which was backed by Morgan Stanley's Asia private equity unit.

JAPAN LAGS Asian stock markets on price performance in dollar terms this year, while Indonesia is the best performer.

MARCH 4

RAVINDRA KISHORE Sinha built India's largest security business from a garage in the dirt-poor state of Bihar. He has just won a seat in the upper house of parliament, becoming its richest member, and his Security and Intelligence Services (SIS India) firm is growing at 40 percent a year.