2022

The HKVCA held its annual Christmas Cocktails event at the China Club on the evening of December 13, 2022. This always festive and popular event was held at the China Club and more than 110 people representing the many sectors of the private equity and venture capital community were in attendance. Members noted how much they enjoyed the opportunity to meet in person with their professional colleagues. With Christmas music in the background, and colorful holiday decorations visible throughout the room, it was the perfect way to kick-off the holiday season.

The HKVCA would like to thank both Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Ascent Partners for their generous sponsorship, as well as all the participants who together helped make this a joyous event.

The HKVCA held its annual Golf Day on December 6, 2022, at Shek O Golf Club. The event had a celebratory atmosphere, featuring perfect weather that saw blue skies and a brilliant sunny day.

Close to 70 people were in attendance, including a number who opted not to play golf but who nevertheless still enjoyed the opportunity to meet with colleagues and friends. Seventeen teams in total competed in the tournament, with the teams comprised of GPs, LPs, and professional services providers working in the private equity and venture capital industry. More than 60 golfers tackled the challenging course, with cocktails on offer at the close of the tournament, capping off a truly memorable day.

We would like to thank our generous sponsors, specifically our Platinum Sponsors Citigroup and Morgan Stanley; our Gold Sponsors Ernst & Young, Jefferies and Lexington Partners; and our Wine Sponsors, Jebsen Capital and Jebsen Fine Wines. We would also like to thank the HKVCA’s Golf Committee – Varun Bery, Chin Chou, Terrance Philips, Bob Partridge, Sunil Chandiramani and Adam Goern – for their wonderful support and leadership.

Jie Gong, a Partner at Pantheon, hosted an HKVCA webinar on the topic of effective communication. Held on December 1, 2022, more than 70 people attended the online event. Joining Gong as speakers were two other private equity veterans: Chin Chou, Managing Director from Morgan Stanley Asia, and Johnny Chan, CIO from Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company. In addition to discussing how best to communicate within a professional setting, the speakers also identified common habits that can sabotage communication and reminded the audience about the importance of first impressions.

The HKVCA is grateful to Jie Gong for hosting the event and extends its thanks to all the speakers and participants.

The HKVCA held a tax seminar on November 22, 2022, at the China Club in Central. More than 60 people registered to attend the event, which featured a discussion of the new tax compliance requirements in US. The speakers also shared the latest issues arising from FATCA and CRS that are impacting PEVC funds, while Patrick Yip, Vice Chair from Deloitte China, offered advice on offshore trust planning for those individual investors with a China nexus.

We would like to thank Deloitte for its most generous sponsorship. We would also like to thank Patrick Yip and his colleagues Candy Chan, Tax Partner; and Edmond Lam, Tax Director from Deloitte China, whose contributions as speakers made the event possible.

Our most recent HKVCA Members Breakfast Meeting was held at the Hong Kong Club on November 18, 2022. This was only the second Breakfast Meeting the Association was able to hold this year due to COVID 19 restrictions and policies. This signature event saw more than 60 members attend and, hosted by HKVCA President and Director, Johnny Chan, attendees took full advantage of this valuable opportunity for networking and connecting with industry peers and fellow practitioners. We would like to thank each of our members for their enthusiastic participation as well as our sponsor, State Street, for making this event a success.

The HKVCA hosted a luncheon seminar covering GP-led secondary transactions. Held on November 11th, 2022 at the China Club, William Yea, an investment principal from Coller Capital, delivered a briefing on the most recent trends and forecasted rapid growth in the secondary market over the next few years. He addressed the key considerations for GPs and discussed the example of an actual recent case involving the firm.

With close to 60 HKVCA members attending the event, we would like to thank all the participants, and especially our sponsor, Coller Capital, for their generous support.

Philippa Allen, CEO and Founder of ComplianceAsia, hosted an HKVCA webinar covering a number of topics involving the regulatory environment for private equity and venture capital in Hong Kong and Singapore. Allen and her team addressed the ongoing reporting requirements, AML as well as recent enforcement actions in both cities. Held on November 8, 2022, over 200 people attended the online event.

The HKVCA extends its thanks to Philippa Allen and ComplianceAsia for sponsoring the event, and to all the speakers and participants.

The HKVCA held its inaugural PE Leadership Forum on Tuesday, November 1, 2022. The half-day Forum was also the Association’s first few events delivered entirely in person, with no virtual component, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Although some restrictions remained in place, we were very pleased to have hosted more than 150 people – CFOs, COOs, general counsel, legal officers, tax advisors and a variety of other consultants – at the China Club in Central.

The Forum addressed a broad range of topical operational topics, including tax and legal issues, ESG and portfolio management. We extend a very special thanks to David Chan and Christine Lin from Ernst & Young, our Platinum sponsor, as well as James Ford from Allen & Overy, our Legal Sponsor.

The HKVCA also expresses its gratitude to the following amazing group of industry experts who shared their experience and knowledge with us as speakers:

• Adam Williams, Ernst & Young Tax Services Limited
• Alvin Lam, CVC Capital Partners
• Amy Fong, FountainVest Partners (Asia) Limited
• Brandan Wing, Morgan Stanley
• Harry Yan, Ernst & Young
• James Ford, Allen & Overy
• Noah Gellner, CPP Investments
• Patrick Cordes, BPEA EQT
• Queenie Ho, Affinity Equity Partners
• Richard Blair, The Blackstone Group (HK) Limited
• Sally Dole, Macquarie Asset Management
• Samantha Tan, BlackRock Asset Management North Asia Limited
• Sofia Wang, Sterling Private Management Limited
• Trinnie So, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan
• Wayne Bannon, The Carlyle Group

The HKVCA hosted its most recent Brownbag Luncheon Talk at Centricity on October 18, 2022. Partners from Latham & Watkins, including Stephen Shi, Richard Watkins, Howard Lam and Dominic Geiser, along with their colleague and Counsel for Latham & Watkins, Lynsey Edgar, discussed the most recent deal terms across Asia. Noting the trend toward the use of investment deal terms to protect the downside risk for a variety of deals, the speakers also addressed the potential developments and the impact of a turning cycle in M&A, distressed transactions, PIPEs, and relevant transactions. With over 60 practitioners in attendance, the event received much positive feedback. We would like to thank sponsor Latham & Watkins for making the event possible.

With more and more private equity and venture capital investment paying attention to crypto and Web3.0, the HKVCA and Ascent Partners hosted a webinar on September 15, 2022. The speakers provided a comprehensive guide to consumer crypto, especially the market landscape of the crypto credit/debit cards market. Andrew Wright, a senior advisor at the firm, was joined by his colleague Felix Wong, Principal; Bryant Robinson, Head of Operations, Asia from GDA Group; and Rai Cockfield, CEO and Founder from yup.gg.

The speakers spoke in particular about a crypto ecosystem developed by GDA Capital, which provides a diverse service for assisting blockchain companies/projects in three phases. The webinar also covered the gaming industry and its integration with Web3.0. More than 100 people participated in the event, which included an interactive Q&A session between attendees and speakers. We extend our thanks to the speakers and to Ascent Partners for their generous sponsorship.

The HKVCA’s 35th Annual General Meeting was held on September 8, 2022. Rebecca Xu was re-elected Chairwoman, after which she delivered a report summarizing the HKVCA’s work over the course of the last year. We would like to extend our appreciation to the 24 members of the Board of Directors and to all our members who gave of their time to attend this important event.

The China Private Equity Summit, one of the HKVCA’s major flagship events, was held for the 21st consecutive year on August 24, 2022. Long recognized as the China PE industry’s leading practitioners’ conference, this year’s sessions were held in a hybrid format and were attended by participants both in-person and online virtually. The result was significantly greater engagement from across the region and around the world, with more than 800 venture capital and private equity practitioners, leading corporates, and other industry professionals attending the event.

Among the distinguished guests were the Hon. Christopher Hui, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the Hong Kong SAR government; Nicolas Aguzin, the CEO of HKEX; and Yi He, Co-Founder & CMO of Binance.

Held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the theme of the discussion this year highlighted the many opportunities that continue to be present in the market in China, including in such sectors as fintech, consumer products and services, deeptech and climatetech. Current sentiment among LPs and family offices was also a focus, as were the challenge of SPACs listings; the latest developments in the PE secondaries market; RMB funds and government guidance funds; and the advantages to be found in Hong Kong spurred by a number of new private equity-related policies.

The recognition that it has been more than two years since the initial outbreak of COVID-19, and that the virus continues to have significant impact on business and economies, underlay much of the discussion. Similarly, the move by many corporates in China to embrace stricter governmental oversight and acknowledge that the “reckless” tech era is over, means there continues to be a consensus of uncertainty as to how all these factors will impact the Chinese economy, not to mention ongoing global political and economic instability, supply chain disruptions and increasing inflation around the world.

We would like to thank our extremely knowledgeable participants and audience of attendees who joined us from locations around the world. Thank you also to our PRC Committee, co-chaired by Conrad Tsang and Jacob Chiu, and to the other committee members. Finally, the HKVCA would like to express our sincere thanks to our valuable sponsors, whose contributions and continued support made the event not only possible but also an unprecedented success.

Jie Gong, a Partner at Pantheon, hosted an HKVCA webinar to announce the official launch of Initiative Climate International (iCI) Asia. Held on July 19, 2022, more than 70 people attended the online introductory seminar.

Other speakers included fellow iCI members Eimear Palmer, a partner at Pantheon; James Bone and Kathy Yang, partners at ERM; Natasha Buckley, Head of ESG from HarbourVest; and Sonali Siriwardena, a partner at international law firm Simmons & Simmons. The speakers introduced the iCI initiative as well as a description of its member base, committee structure, and the initiative’s mission. Since it’s establishment in 2015, over 100 private equity firms have joined the network globally. With the support of a broad group of private equity-related associations, including BVCA, France Invest, ILPA as well as the HKVCA, the group hopes their members will follow their guidance to better understand and manage risks associated with climate change.

The HKVCA is grateful to Jie Gong for hosting the event, and extends its thanks to all the speakers and participants.

Wendy Cheng, APAC Head of Private Equity Services for Alternative Investment Solutions from State Street, hosted an HKVCA webinar addressing the importance of driving operational alpha by leveraging both structured and unstructured investment data on private equity and venture capital. Held on July 19, 2022, more than 110 people registered for the event.

Joined by fellow State Street colleagues Cora Tang, APAC Head of Product for Alternatives; Haresh Patel, CEO from Mercatus, an affiliate of State Street; as well as Kenneth Leong, CFO & COO of independent funds of fund manager Axiom Asia Private Capital, the speakers discussed recent trends around data requirements for LPs as well as how such requirements have changed over time.

The HKVCA extends its thanks to State Street for sponsoring the event, and to all the speakers and participants.

Gaurav Nayak, Sales Director at Datasite, hosted an HKVCA webinar on June 28, 2022, discussing the growing democratization in private equity. The event attracted around 100 participants who attended online.

After noting the emergence of retail investors who are increasingly accessing PE transactions and products, and offering an overview of the latest industry trends, Nayak was joined by Myron Zhu, Head of Private Market Asia at Manulife; Pamela Fung, Executive Director at Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners; and Seung-Ki Jeong, Manager at DGB Life. The speakers addressed three specific issues: i) the emergence of job positions at Tier 1 PE firms that are focused on private wealth; ii) whether this will lead in turn to more IPOs/M&A down the line; and iii) the impact of tokenization on private markets. They also all agreed that technology will continue to act as a catalyst increasing access to PE.

The HKVCA thanks Datasite for its sponsorship. Thanks also to the speakers and to all who attended the event.

Impact investing was the subject of a recent HKVCA webinar held on June 23, 2022.  With close to 100 people in attendance, active participation was encouraged with many attendees involved in the virtual discussion by submitting questions and comments for the speakers.

KO Chia, Co-Chair of HKVCA Education & Research, acted as host and he was joined by Leonie Kelly, Director and Global Head of Sustainable Investment Consulting from Ogier. After offering a brief overview of impact investing, such as the definition of impact investing, discussion turned to developments since the 2009 Rockefeller Foundation report, including the size of market and the key players in the private equity space. Also discussed were the so-called three pillars of successful impact investment, namely intentionality, contribution and measurement.

The HKVCA extends its sincere thanks to Ogier for their generous sponsorship, and to KO Chia as well as Leonie Kelly for their participation.