Era of Equity Investment
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Vol. 59 November 30th , 2016 Latest Report Report on China PE FOF Development Is Issued; FOFs Boom in “Era of Equity Investment” By Meng Yu , Zero2IPO Research Center China has entered “the era of equity investment” in 2016, and the most active regions are Circum-Bohai-Sea with Beijing as the center, Yangtze RiverDelta with Shanghai as the center and Pearl River Delta with Shenzhen as the center. Over two decades of development, the capital market has seen increasingly open policies, innovation become the national strategy, and active VC/PE firms exceeded 10,000, with over RMB6 trillion (or US$900M) of capital under management, making big leaps. As the interest rate is approaching zero and risk-free returns keep on declining, the financial market has entered a cold winter and asset allocation is under big pressure. Both government platforms and industrial parks are seeking industrial transformation and upgrading. Under such background, RMB FOFs are in full-swing development. From2015 to 2016, new VC/PE firms have been emerging in China and many established institutions set up new funds, providing abundant investment targets for FOFs. As a fund platform and asset allocation tool, China‟s FOFs will head to industrialization, specialization, polarization and integration for better development at both capital and asset ends. Against this backdrop, Zero2IPO Research Center released this special issue, the China Venture Capital & Private Equity Fund of Funds Development Research Report 2016, analyzing the industry landscape and current development of China‟s VC/PE FOFs and studying on their operating models and investment returns. It also sets forth the opportunities and challenges VC/PE FOFs are confronted with for the reference of VC/PE firms. Current Development: Preferential Policies Offer Opportunities for Allocation of PE/VC FOFs Under the background of economic transformation & upgrade, China‟s VC/PE FOFs are in full-swing development. Especially after 2015, PE FOFs experienced explosive growth. By the end of June 2016, there had been 1,175 FOFs on Chinese PE market with nearlyUS$375B under management. Since 2015, the government has carried out mass innovation and entrepreneurship. The implementation of supportive policies will create a better policy and market environment for venture capital funds. What‟s more, China is in the technological revolution, and the innovations based on the Internet are coming out in an endless flow. In addition, continuously expanding multi-layer capital market system also broadens the channel for the exit of PE/VC. Under the background of structural transformation, emerging economy and industries have received special attention from the capital market. Behind the mass entrepreneurship are the increasing VC/PE funds that invest in the primary market. This is the historic opportunity for the allocation of PE/VCFOFs. There were 676 government guidance FOFs, accounting for 66.7% of the total 1,013 RMB FOFs. The market-oriented FOFs set by state-owned enterprises and private capital reported 109 and 228respectively, accounting for only 10.8% and 22.5% of the total. 617 government guidance funds were disclosed with total investible capital of US$174.47B, accounting for 81.4%; 151 privately run ones were disclosed with US$18.64B, accounting for 10.8%. 57 market-oriented FOFs of state-owned enterprises stood at US$21.29B, or 9.9%, far behind of government guidance funds and privately-run market-oriented FOFs. In terms of the average investible capital, government guidance funds fell behind of market-oriented FOFs set by SOEs, but were slightly more than privately-run ones. The market-oriented FOFs funded by SOEs averaged US$373.56M, thanks to the larger scale of assets under management. Market-oriented FOFs funded by private capital averaged US$123.47M.Government guidance funds reported US$282.76M, as they aim to encourage more social capital to engage in industry upgrading with a small amount of money. 2 Figure 1 Comparison of RMB FOFs on ChinesePE Market by Type (By No. of Funds) Figure 2 Comparison of RMB FOFs on ChinesePE Market by Type (By Assets under Management, US$M) 3 Asset Allocation: Diversification Never Goes Out of Style; VC Funds Have the Highest Proportion Foreign PE FOFs, whose investments are widely scattered worldwide, not only have investment projects in China but also tap opportunities in surrounding regions and other emerging markets. For example, Pantheon Ventures set up a team targeting at project management and investment research in China, India and Vietnam, etc. The decentralized destinations also disperse economic and political risks to some degree. Most foreign PE FOFs adopt unified management and operation on their projects in different regions. The asset allocation of domestic PEFOFs can be divided into VC fund, growth capital, buyout fund, PERE fund, mezzanine fund, angel investment fund and other investment funds. After studying on the investments of China‟s active PE FOFs, Zero2IPO Research Center found they shared a similar trend in the asset allocation structure. The investment targets of PE FOFs in China mainly consist of VC funds, growth funds and buyout funds, totaling more than 90%. Among them, VC funds, accounting for more than half, became the biggest target of PE FOFs. According to statistics, domestic PE FOFs reduced the allocation of VC funds and invested more in growth funds and buyout funds from 2008 to H1‟16. Figure 3 Comparison of Fundraising of PE FOFs on Global Market in2003-2015 4 Figure 4 Comparison of Assets Allocation of China‟s PE FOFs in 2008-2016H1 (%) Expected Returns: As A Steady VC/PE Investment Tool, PE FOFs’ Investment Returns Are Optimistic PE FOFs have been an important investment option in China‟s PE industry. By putting the raised funds into different types of PE funds, PE FOFs made portfolios diversified, reducing the risks of investment to some extent. Because of the sound cooperation between PEFOFs and many quality PE funds, some investors with limited resources choose PEFOFs as access to PE funds with higher threshold. Rather than invest in an individual fund as VC/PE funds do, FOFs invest in multiple funds at the same time, gaining more opportunities to cooperate with quality funds, and the investment risk is less and the expected ROI higher that the market average. 5 Figure 5 Comparison of Return on Investment of Global PE FOFs in1998-2010 Outlook on PE FOFs: Achievements and Challenges Co-exist As FOFs are newly introduced from overseas, their operation mode is not familiar with investees and the investment strategies are improper. China‟s FOFs are faced with the following three questions. First, compared with the sound financial system of developed countries in Europe and America, China's VC/PE FOF market still has indefinite development pattern. Second, investment efficiency and returns are lower than expected. Besides, due to the lack of research, the fund selection still depends on the perceptual knowledge of fund managers; the evaluation model on funds‟ future development is absent and with only historical performance, it is unable to support the stability of the whole investment decision; the lack of asset categories in China has limited FOFs‟ advantage, as they are increasingly similar to sub-funds. In addition, due to policy restrictions, firms such as insurance capital and corporate annuities that adopt the mode of FOF in managing assets are restricted to limited investment targets. Zero2IPO Research Center puts forward the following suggestions on the management and development of PE FOFs: 1) setting definite goals and strategies; 2) choosing optimal manager; 3) developing a sound management process; 4) carrying out rigorous due diligence for sub-funds;5) carrying out dynamic risk control of direct investment funds; 6) combining with other private equity investments; 7) ensuring that investment institutions are fully aware of the risk of private equity; 8) developing multi-level information disclosure rules for different subjects; 9) implementing filing 6 system for domestic and foreign private equity funds; 10) encouraging progressive private-equity investment planning. Though FOFs are confronted with certain problems and challenges in China, they have natural advantages in spreading investment risks and diversifying portfolio allocation. Their professional management and investment competence can also ensure the stability of investment returns. Thus, FOFs will be an important tool in China‟s VC/PE market. Against the backdrop of mass innovation and entrepreneurship and gradually relaxed industry policies, China‟s VC/PE funds are flourishing and lay a good market environment for the development of FOFs. Currently, the government guidance funds are growing rapidly, state-backed FOFs are becoming market-oriented and the scale of privately-run FOFs is expanding, which will usher in a new stage for the development of China‟s FOF market. BPEA News No. 12th of "BPEA PE Management Training Program" successfully held in Beijing No.12th of BPEA PE Management Training Program successfully took place in Beijing, on Oct. 24th - 28th, 2016. More than 100 people attend the first two days training course, which is focused on the policy of PE industry in Beijing including registration, tax and preferential policy. More than 30 members of BPEA attended the next two days training program, which is focused on law issues, tax issues, private equity investment and management respectively. >Read more CAPE, BPEA and Caixin co-organized “2016 China PE/VC Awards” “2016 China PE/VC Awards” started on November 2nd, 2016, co-organized by CAPE, BPEA and Caixin. This activity aimed at to create an authoritative business list of PE/VC industry, to encourage the investment institutions, intermediary service agencies and investors who achieved remarkable results in the passing twelve months (from Oct.2015 to Oct.2016). The result will be released on the night of December 10th, 2016.