Fang Fenglei, who founded China's first investment bank more than a decade ago, now wants to open one of the country's first independently run private equity funds, said two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Fang, who now heads the Chinese securities venture of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, is gauging whether regulators will support his plan for a 6 billion-yuan ($790 million) buyout fund.

He aims to take advantage of a partnership law that took effect in June to set up a fund and he has no plans to step down as chairman of Beijing-based Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities Co, they said.

Regulatory approval would let Fang, 55, tap demand for investment in a market where $910 million of buyouts have been announced this year, compared with $9.22 billion in Australia, an economy one-third the size of China's, data compiled by Bloomberg show. He must win the support from officials who still direct about 150,000 State-owned companies and who control the bulk of funding for existing buyout firms.

"Fang has a clear vision of what he wants to achieve," said Vincent Chan, managing partner of Hong Kong-based venture capital firm Jafco Asia. "The key question is whether he can diversify his funding as most domestic funds are raised from State-owned enterprises, which isn't ideal."

Independent private-equity funds in China, such as CDH Investments and Capital Today, only raise funds offshore. The Bohai Industry Investment Fund became the first domestic, yuan-based private-equity fund established in China last year and is being managed by BOC International (Holdings) Ltd, a unit of China's second-largest bank.

At least six companies are seeking regulatory approval to establish domestic funds, the people said.

Most domestic yuan funds are still are dominated by a single investor or organization, said Ludvig Nilsson, the managing partner of Jade Alternative Investment Advisors, a Shanghai-based investment and advisory firm focusing on private equity in China.

Setting up as a partnership enables the fund managers to take a greater share of any profits, which should help attract top-tier investment professionals, and will help prevent any single investor from directing strategy, he said.

"The new partnership structure gives clearer separation of power" between investors and fund managers, he said. It "promotes stricter investment and exit timetable mandates."

Fang helped New York-based Goldman win an investment banking license for Goldman Sachs Gao Hua in December 2004, giving the firm a head start over global rivals in China, where a record $17.2 billion of stock has been sold this year.