The Chinese-Israeli private equity fund Catalyst-CEL is in talks to buy 49% of Haifa Chemicals Limited, a fertilizer and chemicals company valued at around US$1 billion, according to sources at Globes newswire.

Chinese investors continue to regard large Israeli companies as a target for acquisitions, following the acquisition of Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd by ChemChina and the more recent purchase of dairy concern Tnuva Food Industries Ltd by Bright Food.

The private equity fund was founded a year ago by Edward Cukierman’s Catalyst group of funds. The most prominent investor in the fund is China’s Everbright International.

The Catalyst-CEL fund was founded in February 2014 in order to support Israeli companies wishing to expand in the Chinese market. The fund, which completed its initial closing at US$100 million and plans to increase the round to US$300 million this year, is aiming its investments at companies in the intermediate and advanced stages with proven innovative technology. The fund has made one investment to date, when it acquired control of Lamina, which has developed cutting -edge technology for chip processing, in August 2014 for US$42 million.