| Hong Kong Venture Capital Forum 2016 | | The third annual Hong Kong Venture Capital Forum (HKVCF), organized by the Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (HKVCA), was held on Friday, March 18, 2016. Hosted at KPMG’s impressive conference rooms at Hysan Place, the Forum proved to be an overwhelming success with over 200 industry professionals in attendance.
Welcoming remarks were delivered by Rupert Chamberlain, Partner and Head of Private Equity, KPMG Hong Kong, while opening remarks were delivered by the Hon. Nicholas Yang, Secretary for Innovation and Technology of the Hong Kong SAR Government. A most memorable keynote address was provided by Nisa Leung, Managing Partner of Qiming Ventures.
The first panel of the day was on robotics, with a panel that featured James Savage, Partner at Hendale Capital; Rocky Lee, Asia Managing Partner & Head of Greater China at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; James Chan, Vice President (International) at GreyOrange; and Denis Tse, Executive Director at MaxNerva.
The second panel discussed the latest investment trends in healthcare and featured Judith Li, Partner at Lilly Asia Ventures; Dr. Benjamin Li, Chief Executive Officer at Lee’s Pharmaceutical Holdings; Dr. Xueming Qian, Founder, Chairman & CEO at MabSpace Biosciences; and Lawrence Wang, Managing Director at Vivo Capital.
The final panel of the afternoon focused on blockchain technology and featured a lively discussion with Melissa Guzy, Co-founder & Managing Partner at Arbor Ventures; Rocky Lee, Asia Managing Partner & Head of Greater China at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; Darren Camas, CEO at BitNexo; Dr. Joseph Wang, Chief Scientist at Bitquant Research Laboratories; Maarten Hartog, Senior Manager at Corporate Treasury Advisory KPMG China; Han Verstraete, Founder at Otonomos; and Jehan Chu, Director at Vermillion Art Collections.
The Forum ended with a demo session where a variety of local startups were able to present to the audience and received valuable comments from our expert judging panel, which included Varun Bery of TVG Capital Partners; Duncan Chiu of Radiant Venture Capital; and Mae Wang of Focus Ventures Asia. A lively cocktail reception followed, hosted by our sponsor KPMG, and all the participants - investors, advisors and entrepreneurs - were able to be part of a valuable networking opportunity.
We would like to thank most sincerely our generous sponsors, specifically our Platinum Sponsor, KPMG; our Venture Forum Sponsor, Cadwalader; and Silver Sponsor, Ascent Partners. Finally, we would like to thank the Association’s Venture Committee and all the participants for their continued support and contributions that helped make this special event possible.
More photos can be viewed here.
Video highlights can be viewed here.
| | Opportunities in a Less Than Perfect Environment | |  | Ralph Keitel is a Principal Investment Officer in the Private Equity and Investment Funds department of the 60-year-old International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. Since joining IFC a decade ago, he has been responsible as regional lead for IFC's private equity fund activities in Eastern Europe/Russia, Africa, Latin America and, since 2015, East Asia. | | | Since joining the organization in 2006, Keitel has worked in a great many countries around the world but has come to believe that it is their similarities rather than their differences that unite them. “What we see is that the GPs and the CEOs of the companies they invest with face the same challenges everywhere in emerging markets: less than perfect regulatory, political and legal environments; lack of equity capital; shallow talent pools when it comes to recruitment for portfolio companies; and impediments to private sector investing such as corruption, red tape and so forth,” he said.
From the IFC point of view, therefore, the value it can add is its experience in having dealt with these challenges in multiple markets over the past several decades. “We do our best in terms of helping and advising governments on how to tackle these issues and the World Bank publishes the annual Doing Business report, which rates countries on the ease of doing business in the private sector,” Keitel said.
“We try to play a meaningful role in helping governments implement regulatory improvements. I would say on aggregate the Asian markets are much larger and many of them are more mature within the emerging markets context. Hence we are seeing more sophisticated managers, a larger set of managers and managers that have more experience when it comes to fund raising and deploying capital.
“Southeast Asia, however, remains a key focus for the IFC, as is China. Until last year, we had not actively invested in China mid-market funds for several years but we are getting back into it. China is at an interesting point in its development, moving away from an investment driven and export oriented manufacturing industry towards one that is consumer driven and services led. This kind of development creates both winners and losers and it’s up to private equity to use its unique skill set in identifying the winners and capitalizing on those opportunities.”
“The story of the IFC is that when a lot of money rushes out of certain markets and the hot money goes home, then the IFC invests. If it’s a market in turbulent times, for example, Latin America after the peso crisis or Argentina after defaulting, this is when the IFC has an active role in making sure the private sector is still receiving the capital that it needs,” Keitel said.
Keitel splits his time evenly through Southeast Asia and China and is busy identifying good mid-market GPs that the IFC wants to invest with. It has longstanding relationships that it is seeking to back again, while also identifying new managers. Part of its mandate is to look at frontier markets where there is not yet a large pool of commercial and private money available. Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are examples of where there are opportunities that the IFC might support.
Part of what guides its investment decisions are attitudes towards governance and transparency. Asked whether he sees greater standards of transparency emerging, Keitel said that encouraging governance remained key.
“Private equity is an illiquid asset class and investors anywhere in the world, whether an emerging market or a developed market, have an understandable interest in making sure that their investments, the valuations that they are seeing from GPs, present an up to date and accurate reflection of their investment.
“Smart GPs will recognize that and do their best to implement good reporting standards and help LPs in their attempts towards greater transparency. Accordingly, we encourage greater acceptance of international reporting standards like the Institutional Limited Partners Association guidelines because they make a lot of sense for GPs and also facilitate their fund raising,” he said. . | | _ | | HKVCA Members Event |  | | Speaker: | Geoffrey Ma, The Honourable Chief Justice | | Date: | 18 April, 2016 (Mon) | | Time: | 19:00-21:00 | | Venue: | Harcourt Suite, Hong Kong Club, 1 Jackson Road, | | Central, Hong Kong | | (Room reserved under the name of Mr. Joseph Ferrigno) | | Fee*: | Full Member / Associate Member: $680 per person | | *An additional charge may apply to accommodate special dietary requests. | | 
__________________________________________ | | Limited seats available |  | | | | Sponsored by |  | | Speaker: | Greg Hallahan, | | Managing Director, Global Risk and Investigations Practice, FTI Consulting | | Date: | 21 April, 2016 (Thur) | | Time: | 12:30-14:00 | | Venue: | FTI Office, Level 22, The Center, 99 Queen's Road Central, | | Central, Hong Kong | | Fee*: | Full Member (Corporate): one free pass per company | | Associate Member/ Full Member (additional pass): | | HK$200 per person | | Non Member: HK$400 per person | | Priority is given to HKVCA members. | | *No Show will be charged full price | | *Fee inclusive of a light lunch. | | CPT: | 1.5 points | |  ___________________________________________ |  |
____________________________________________ | | Limited seats available |  | | HKVCA Luncheon Talk: Outbound Investments into Europe | Sponsors:
Chiomenti Studio Legale (Italy) Cuatrecasas Goncalves Pereira (Spain & Portugal) | | ... | | Moderator: | William Hay, General Counsel, Baring Private Equity Asia | | Speakers: | Antonio Tavella, Partner, Chiomenti Studio Legale | | Pedro Amat Méndez, Partner, | | Cuatrecasas Goncalves Pereira | | Antoine de la Gatinais, Partner, Gide | | Michael Burian, Partner, Gleiss Lutz | | Date: | 29 April, 2016 (Fri) | | Time: | 12:30-14:00 | | Venue: | The China Club, 14/F, The Old Bank of China Building, | | Bank Street, Central, Hong Kong | | Fee*: | Full Member (Corporate): one free pass per company | | Associate Member/ Full Member (additional pass): | | HK$450 per person | | Non Member: HK$800 per person | | Priority is given to HKVCA members. | | *No Show will be charged full price
*An additional charge may apply to accommodate special dietary requests. | | CPT: | 1 point | |
___________________________________________ | | HKVCA Members Event | | | | | Sponsored by |  | | Speakers: | Makota Takada, General Counsel, Advantage Partners | | Yuka Matsuda, Tax Partner, Financial Services, | | PricewaterhouseCoopers Japan | | Date: | 9 May, 2016 (Mon) | | Time: | 12:30-14:00 | | Venue: | The China Club, 14/F, The Old Bank of China Building, | | Bank Street, Central, Hong Kong | | Fee*: | Full Member (Corporate): one free pass per company | | Associate Member/ Full Member (additional pass): | | HK$450 per person | | *No Show will be charged full price
*An additional charge may apply to accommodate special dietary requests. | | CPT: | 1 point | | __________________________________________ | |  | | The 15th HKVCA China Private Equity Summit 2016 | | Opening Remarks | Opening Keynote |  | Professor K C Chan, GBS, JP,
Secretary for Financial
Services and the Treasury,
Hong Kong SAR |  | Lei Zhang,
Chairman & CEO,
Hillhouse Capital Management Group | | Luncheon Keynote | Closing Keynote |  | Fritz Demopoulos,
CEO,
Queen's Road Capital |  | Frank Tang,
CEO & Managing Partner,
FountainVest Partners | View more confirmed speakers here. | | Date: | 30 May, 2016 (Mon) | | Time: | 9:00 - 17:15 (followed by cocktail reception) | | Venue: | N201, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre | | (New Wing) | | Fee: | Early Bird Rate (Payment before 29 April, 2016) | | Full Member (Corporate): one free pass per company | | Associate Member/ Full Member (additional pass): | | HK$3,100 per person | | Non Member: HK$5,100 | | CPT: | 6.5 points | |  | | View CPES 2015 highlights here. |
_________________________________________ | | | | | Sponsored by |  | | Speaker: | James Grove, Head of Asian Operations, Preqin | | Date: | 6 June, 2016 (Mon) | | Time: | 12:30-14:00 | | Venue: | The China Club, 14/F, The Old Bank of China Building, | | Bank Street, Central, Hong Kong | | Fee*: | Full Member (Corporate): one free pass per company | | Associate Member/ Full Member (additional pass): | | HK$450 per person | | Non Member: HK$800 per person | | *No Show will be charged full price
*An additional charge may apply to accommodate special dietary requests. | | CPT: | 1 point | |
_________________________________________ | | | | Instructed by Debra Meiburg, Master of Wine | | ... | | Date: | 13 June, 2016 (Mon) | | Time: | 18:30 - 20:30 | | Venue: | Harcourt Suite, Hong Kong Club, 1 Jackson Road, | | Central, Hong Kong | | (Room reserved and hosted by the name of Mr. Marcus Thompson) | | Fee: | Early Bird Rate (Payment before 29 April, 2016) | | HKVCA Member: HK$600 per person (HK$680) | | Non Member: HK$1,100 per person (HK$1,200) | | | Priority is given to HKVCA members. | |
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HKVCA Supporting Events:
SVCA SE Asia Private Equity Conference
15 April 2016 China Healthcare Investment Roundtable 2016
15 April 2016
SuperReturn China 2016
18-20 April 2016
Better Boards Briefing
21 April 2016
IFC’s 18th Annual Global Private Equity Conference In Association With EMPEA
9-12 May 2016
HKTDC Entrepreneur Day 2016 - Fund & Mentor Session
13 May 2016
Belt and Road Summit 2016
18 May 2016
AVPN Conference 2016
23-25 May 2016
FT Half Day Workshop: So You Want To Be A Non-Executive Director?
26 May 2016
FINNOASIA - A FinTech Seminar
30 May 2016 | | | . | |
New Members Welcome
_______________________ Corporate Full Members
Ally Bridge Group (HK) Limited
Ally Bridge Group (HK) Limited is an investment advisors to provide investment advisory and investment management services for a public equity fund on a discretionary basis in pursuit of the investment objectives of the fund in connection with the proposed asset management services. Barclays Accelerator
The Barclays Accelerator is a startup investment and mentorship programme partnership with renowned technology accelerator Techstars that focuses on Fintech startups allowing startups from any region in the world to apply and enroll in intensive programmes located in New York, London, Cape Town and Tel Aviv. Successful applicants receive guidance and direction from Barclays and mentorship from leading Fintech industry experts. An investment per startup of up to USD120K from Techstars is made with a 6% equity stake taken. I am the Asia representative for this programme and am seeking to assist the programme to identify eligible startups for referral.
Hillhouse Capital Management Limited Hillhouse Capital Group (Hillhouse) is a leading investment management firm founded by Mr. Zhang Lei in 2005. The Group manages capital for institutional clients such as university endowments, foundations, sovereign wealth funds, pensions and family offices. Hillhouse is a long-term fundamental equity investor with a global mandate. Independent, fundamental and proprietary research is key to the investment process. The team focuses on the consumer, TMT, industrials and healthcare sectors and invests in companies across all equity stages. Prostar Capital
Prostar Capital is a private equity firm established to invest across the mid-market energy value chain in the Asia-Pacific region. Prostar manages more than US$600 million in capital commitments. The firm invests in operating companies, projects and assets that are focused on midstream, storage and downstream energy infrastructure. Welkin Capital Management (Asia) Limited
Welkin is a leading growth equity firm in China, with a focus on mid-market companies. Our proprietary capital base allows us to act as long-term partners to fast-growing companies in China. Welkin was founded by the heirs of four leading business families in the regions, families that are among the earliest and most successful investors and business leaders in China. We understand the complexities of growing a business in China because we have done it ourselves. By utilizing the powerful resources of our platform, we invest in fast growing mid-market companies in China and provide them with impactful strategic value-add resources that help them to compete better, expand market shares and emerge as new market leaders.
Corporate Associate Member
The Winterbotham Trust Company (Hong Kong) Limited
Winterbotham is dedicated to providing tailor made financial and fiduciary services to Fund Managers, High Net-worth Individuals, Family Offices, Structuring Consultants, entrepreneurs and their companies worldwide. Winterbotham advises on structures and implements financial and commercial cross border transactions, often forming part of a multifaceted team, adding value through the provision of key service elements in banking, custodial services for listed and non-listed holdings, trustee, corporate and fund administration services. Winterbotham also has the capabilities in providing IT support platforms for clients.
___________________________ Recent Events Report ________________________
HKVCA Members Breakfast Meeting
8 April 2016
The HKVCA’s monthly breakfast meeting was held at the Hong Kong Club on Friday, April 8th. The event was substantially oversubscribed and, as has been the case in previous months, proved to be an extremely popular activity for our members. Close to 70 persons attended and were able to take advantage of a valuable opportunity to network and reconnect with fellow industry practitioners following the Easter holidays.
This month's members breakfast would not have been possible without the sponsorship of FTI Consulting, to whom we would like to extend our sincere thanks for their continued support and help in making this terrific event possible. We of course would also like to thank each of our members for their participation, helping make this regular event such a success.
HKVCA LP Luncheon
29 March 2016
The HKVCA’s LP Committee hosted its latest LP only luncheon on March 29th 2016 at the China Club. Eva Yi, Senior Economist at CICC, spoke about what she believes will be the hottest issues related to China’s macro economic outlook in 2016, including whether the PBOC will need to cut rates this year; whether RMB fundamentals will support a substantial depreciation of the currency; which policies might help boost investment returns in China over the long term; and the status of various asset markets. The HKVCA and the LP Committee were pleased that close to 20 LP representatives were able to find time from their busy schedules to attend the lunch and to network with colleagues after the Easter Holidays and would like to thank most sincerely all the participants who helped to make this event a great success. HKVCA Luncheon Talk
21 March 2016
A brownbag luncheon talk with speakers from Deloitte was held on 21 March 2016 at Deloitte's Hong Kong office. The talk was on the topic “OECD’s Common Reporting System (CRS) – Prepare for a Tight Timeframe" and the FATCA and CRS experts provided an overview of CRS and highlighted the key differences between FATCA and CRS. They also discussed with 25 participants regarding some of the implementation issues that are expected in the future and provided suggestions to help better understanding how CRS may affect the industry in addition to determine next steps to be taken with respect to investment funds domiciled in different jurisdictions. We would like to express our thanks to our extremely knowledgeable speakers whose support made the event possible and successful.
___________________________ Industry News ___________________________
Blackstone Announces New Leadership Structure In Asia Pacific 5 April 2016
(Press Release) - Blackstone (NYSE:BX) today announced a new Asia Pacific leadership structure to enhance management capabilities across the region. The new structure included several promotions: Chris Heady, the current Head of Real Estate Asia, has been named Blackstone’s Chairman of Asia Pacific. View full article here
Navis Invests In Hong Kong-Based Texon - update 5 April 2016
(AVCJ by Holden Mann) - Navis Capital Partners has acquired Hong Kong-based footwear component manufacturer Texon International Group for $75-$125 million, AVCJ understands, buying a controlling stake held by Barclays Ventures.
Navis focuses on mid-market buyouts and is currently deploying its seventh flagship fund, which closed in 2014 at $1.5 billion. According to an announcement, Texon will use the new capital to commercialize a number of innovative material development projects, develop its presence in new markets and acquire complementary businesses.
View full article here PE Investors CMC Capital, FountainVest Partially Exit IMAX China 24 March 2016
(DealStreetAsia by Liz Lee) - Private equity investors CMC Capital Partners and FountainVest Partners have sold 20 million pre-initial public offering (IPO) shares in IMAX China, ahead of the expiration of their lock-up period.
The returns on the divestment were not disclosed. IMAX Corporation and IMAX China Holding, Inc announced on Wednesday that IMAX China has been informed by the lead underwriter for the latter’s IPO, Morgan Stanley Asia Limited, that its two lead private equity investors, have extended their lock-up for three additional months from April 8.
View full article here
NewQuest Raises $500M For Third Fund 15 March 2016
The vehicle, which is targeting US$520 million, will continue to focus on secondary deals in Asia, particularly in China and India.
(ChinaMoneyNetwork by Jillian Yue) - NewQuest Capital Partners, a Hong Kong-based specialist in private equity direct secondary deals, has reached a first closing of US$500 million for its third fund.
View full article here
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