As you might have noticed, I have been focusing on Chinese companies over the past few days, seeking to highlight some sectors where the massive influx of tourism and business and money into China is having a positive effect.

What is more natural in a booming economy than advertising? As people's spending power increases, so too does the need for companies to market products for them to buy. And let's not forget: 2008 Olympics are being hosted in Beijing. This is going to bring a boost to the already growing arena of new media advertising.

Enter Focus Media Holding Limited (ADR) (NASDAQ:FMCN), China's largest publicly-traded advertising firm. This company specializes in "out-of-home advertising" -- in other words, it uses in-store, commercial location, outside light emitting diode (LED), and mobile handset networks to broadcast advertisements. In 2003, Focus Media went from being a traditional ad agency to focusing on the out-of-home market, and it was smart to jump into the game that early. After many acquisitions, it staked out the market terrain and are now the leader in the outdoor ad market, directly operating in 50 cities and indirectly in 36 more cities. It's flying along. Net income for 4th quarter 2006 was $30.1 million compared to the previous year's $9.4 million, and sales tripled to $68.3 million. This market is particularly important in China, where ads can capture bored people in long lines!

Back in 2003, Jason Jiang (who is now 33) started Focus Media Holding (NASDAQ: FMCN), which provides video advertising in elevators in China. So far, it's been a huge success. His company currently has a market cap of $3.8 billion.

One of its shareholders is the private equity firm the Carlyle Group. Well, it should be no surprise that it wants to cash-out, by selling 10 million shares (the firm will still have a stake of 12.5 million). This is according to a recent filing with the SEC.

The firm's initial investment was $19.5 million in late 2004. Thus, its payday will represent about a 9X return.

All in all, the deal was fairly unusual for Carlyle. That is, the investment was a minority stake. However, the investment was actually not in Focus Media. Rather, it was in Target Media Holdings, which was bought out by Focus Media.

Interestingly enough, Target Media was also a startup company – which is also unusual for Carlyle.

But, hey, Carlyle needs to find any way to make money, right?

You can see a write-up on the transaction at The Daily Deal website.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.